Induction birth Plan

[stillwaitingforbaby]

So far I've not written a birth plan, in full understanding that no matter what I plan, I don't know what will actually happen. That said I'm currently booked in tomorrow morning for some monitoring and to potentially be induced, nothing set in stone though. I've decided to write up a few notes about what is important to me, if anything for my own sanity and so that my DP has an idea of what I would like to happen. I know some people think birth plans are unrealistic and I should just go with it but if you fancy reading my notes and want to offer any advice or tips they'd be gratefully received.

• Under NO circumstances do I want to be given any opiate based pain relief regardless of assisted or CS delivery. (I don't react well at all to them, I will forget this entire week and the staff will more than likely waste a lot of time picking me off the walls. I'm not trying to be a martyr, they're likely to do more harm than good for me and my Dr & MW agrees)

• I would like to try and stay active / upright for as long as possible

• I would like to start off basic with pain relief and work up i.e. TENS, Water, G & A and possibly epidural if I'm not coping.

• I do not want DP to cut the cord or be called down the business end to see baby crowning or head out. (he will faint, he faints at the sight of blood and this is something we both feel strongly about, probably not the best birthing partner!)

• I don't want the baby to be taken out of the room away from me unless of course necessary in which case I'd like DP to be able to follow. (probably standard)

• I would like to BF, would love skin to skin, delayed or natural 3rd stage but understand if circumstances dictate these are not possible.

• Happy to have students involved, and I'm open to anything that is medically necessary for baby to arrive safely!.

Pretty much exactly what I wanted, except DH was very much at the business end.

I just said to them that I was happy to have whatever was medically required to get the baby out safely. I was adamant I didn't want pethidine either. I only had (like yourself) a feel points I was not going to budge from. The lack of pethidine, dhs involvement, and skin to skin were the three.

Good luck, you'll be meeting your baby soon. I think what you have written is sensible and gives enough detail. If that reassures then happy to have helped!

I think your birth plan is fine. It covers the points that are important to you but isn't so detailed as to be unrealistic.
Good luck tomorrow xx

I think it's good. Just a few ideas:

• are you going to put why no opiates actually in the plan (saves explaining yourself a million times);

• if you are keen to remain upright and mobile (a good plan) you might want to specifically say no continuous monitoring unless/until absolutely necessary. It means that, in the early stages, they are more likely to make the effort with the handheld rather than 'just hooking you up for 15 minutes to see how we're doing' (as my midwife did in labour one, so she could bugger off for a bit!);

• not sure if you are thinking of the pain relief as in order, but gas and air may well come before a pool, but do think about showers/baths if possible (i.e. before any drip, if you get going without);

• do you know the sex? If not, how do you want to be told/found out?

• how do you feel about the vitamin K injection?

-they won't take the baby away unless vital. Even resus is generally done in room. It would be SCBU/NICU. In which case you can just have a private agreement with your DH that he follows the baby. Unless you think that he'll need the reminder!

• are you happy with all students? I said I was happy with midwifery students and any medical student who was going to attend for a prolonged period, but not groups trailing around after a consultant looking for something interesting going on!

• I specifically had in my birth plan that I wanted all staff (except in emergency) to introduce themselves by name.

Feel free to ignore it all though! Your plan sounds great as it is.

i think that the plan for dh to follow dc out of the room needs to be fluid, i very much hope that this won't happen but i had a crash section and ds was very much rushed away, in that circumstance the medical people didn't really want to talk to us as they did not want to make promises they did not know whether they could keep. it also took about 30 mins before they could come back to us, my dh would not have been a help to ds but it would have been awful if he had left me alone in that cicumstance. my ds is now a very bouncy 5 year old so all's well that ends well! please don't worry but i wanted to share my thoughts having been in this particular position. all the best for the birth

Sounds good - I found that although I'd wanted a very natural birth I found the contractions way too strong even in the early stages and ended up with an epidural. I did appreciate that they tried other methods with me first.

I found people introducing themselves by name to be standard (and they all knocked and waited to be asked in). I suspect this varies by hospital.

The one thing it is worth thinking through if you are in induced is if you have a couple of overnight stays after the pessary (here you have a pessary for 24 hours before they start the drip - it prepares the cervix but sometimes is all it takes to get into labour (was for me). They may do it more than once so that would be 2 lots of 24 hours before more active induction is tried). The first while I needed things to kill time but I went into painful contractions at midnight (but until you are 4cm its not "established" labour so I couldn't go down to labour ward and couldn't have my husband in.) That meant being in labour (as far as I was concerned) without my husband which was hard but the mw were fantastic, put my tens on etc. May well not be the case for you but its worth thinking through the situation!

Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate your thoughts, I've not done this before so don't have anything to go on.

I've tried to keep it short and down to the things that I really feel strongly about so that they may take it a bit more seriously if they do read it. The thing about no opiates is on the top, I've not explained it on the birth plan bit of my notes but my GP & MW have put it elsewhere in my notes with an explanation. I'm not too worried about being offered during labour as DP can refuse it for me if I can't talk for myself, but I'm most worried about being given it automatically after a CS or assisted birth if it comes to that. So I'll make sure I discuss that point on admission.

I haven't put about finding out the sex ourselves or Vit K because we are happy for them to do both and wanted to keep it simple. I guess my birth plan is mainly for what I don't want to happen. It is a good point though and it is something we've talked through so DP knows about those. Will rethink students though, I was just thinking student MW's and nurses not groups....

I'm worried DP may be torn if baby does have to be taken out of the room if something is wrong. I feel quiet strongly that I'd want him to be with the baby not me. He won't be any help to DS except to stand watch over him but then same with me. I'm sure that when it comes down to it the MW's will take the lead and sort out who is where though. I doubt they'd take DS anywhere unless they have to and then it's all about making sure DS is ok rather than what we want so maybe not such an important thing to be on there.

In terms of pain relief I'm trying to cover all bases but didn't want to get laughed at. I'm taking with me paracetamol, arnica tablets, arnicare oil (they have big baths there to use), essential oils, rescue remedy, birthing ball and TENS machine. After I've exhausted those I'm happy to use the birthing pool, G&A and epidural. I just don't have a clue how I'm going to cope with the pain (or how it'll feel) so I want to be open to everything and see what works.

usingapseudonym - thanks for mentioning it, I had been a little worried about this a similar thing happened to a friend of mine. I asked today and was told that they use 6hr Gels instead of pessary, although the last one is given at 8pm if you get to the 3rd lot of Gel so still could happen. Apparently at my local hospital like to give you a nights rest if you're not progressing so they say 3 lots of gel before they move onto other methods. So tomorrow will be Gels then Wednesday ARM and Drip. I doubt I'll get much sleep tomorrow night though!

So far I've gotten a good impression from my hospital, will be on a 3 bed ward until I'm considered in labour but when I've been in a room for monitoring they've knocked before coming in and introduced themselves and each other so hopefully tomorrow they will be just as good.

Oooh tomorrow! How exciting!! You will soon meet your baby :) Its easy to say and hard to do but do keep that in mind through all the process - baby!!

Something someone said to me about "pain" helped me. They said how if a marathon runner focused tons in advance on the leg pain they would feel, and on being sick, wanting it to end etc they would never run a marathon - but if you focus on why you are doing it it helps...! Hope that makes sense.

All the best tomorrow :)