Birth plan - what to write??

[Cornberry]

I'm 36 weeks and I know I need to write my birth plan but I'm not really sure what to put down. Seems odd to write a p,an for something that's bound to be unpredictable. I sort of want to write no drugs unless I feel they're necessary and that's it. What else can you put? I'm drawing a blank. Advice welcome!

Doh - put this in the wrong section! Will move it. Sorry!

Just put that then, you don't need one!

For both of mine I had on that DH didn't want to cut the cord, that I wanted skin on skin ASAP if possible and baby delivered onto me (happened with my 2nd baby but not my first) but that was basically it. I had nothing about the actual labours per se.

I think you've put this in the wrong topic. You might want to get it moved to pregnancy to get more traffic

I didn't write a birth plan. Just discussed it with DH and decided to go with the flow on the day. I felt confident that if I couldn't speak for myself at any point then he could do it for me. You don't have to write one if you don't have any specific wishes. Or what you suggested would be fine to write too.

X post OP. Put it down to baby brain. I'm still blaming that for things & DF is nearly 6 months!

DD not DF

See...baby brain!

if you google birth plans you'll find a link to a nhs page and nct page both of which provide useful templates.

my midwife suggested calling it a 'wish list' rather than a birth plan as as you said it is unpredictable.

briefly you should set out whether and what pain relief you want, what type of birth you want (for example a water birth), whether you consent to forceps/ventouse/episiotomy, whether you want skin to skin, how you wish to feed (breastfeeding/formula),who is cutting the cord & whether you want to delay cord clamping. there is probably more to add but i can't quite remember what else i added now!

I did preferences not a plan, it helps caregivers to understand your approach.

So yay or nah to the drugs? Medical or dim lights and water? optimal cord clamping? Skin to skin? Injection for placenta? There's lots of lists about.

I didn't bother. Wasn't going to put expectations on myself for something i didn't know how i would react to . Eg. I didn't want epidural but ended up not having a choice due to complications.

It's worth making a note for midwife it you are going to ff/bf. Skin to skin, etc
As Chazzer said its more about preferences.

I wrote mine but in the heat of it no one looked.
More usefully my birth partners - dh and my mum- knew key info like the placenta has to go to pathology and I would prefer c section to rotation forceps etc.
My birth was super fast though - not even nice fast ... scary taxi ride and big year and mucusy baby fast! But it was all ok and the mw were great.

Be wary of writing no pain relief unless needed - it's kind of what is expected but if you write it down, friends of mine have had umming and "are you sure" when they really did want it immediately!

I put what I did not want rather than what I wanted. I phrased it as 'do not consent to'. I was adamant I would not consent to high, rotational forceps (Keillands sp?) and wished to move to a section in that case.

I also put down my post birth bf preferences with my second.

I put it in three sections

Early labour

I want to be as mobile as possible, please encourage me to use a birthing ball, show me helpful positions.

Pain relief, I would like to try gas and air, a tens machine then a birthing pool then an epidural (if needed) I do not want pethadine (codeine makes me high so god knows what pethadine would have done)

Labour

I would like to have a water birth.

I want cord clamping delayed till cord stops pulsing

Third stage

I do/do not want the oxytocin injection to deliver the placenta

I want my baby to have vitamin k injection/tablets

I wa t help with breastfeeding, please check the latch on every feed

I want immediate skin to skin contact