Birth Plan template/sample??

[Leilababyno1]

I am 37+ weeks and haven't written a birth plan yet.

I know this 'plan' will probably go out of the window once I get to hospital, but I would like to have some rough bullet points- so I can feel a little more prepared...

Has anyone got a template/sample they could post a link to, as don't know where to start?

Thanks!

Have you got an example in your pregnancy notes? I have but not sure if there is a difference as I'm in Wales?

I did mine under the following headings and it's one side of A4 and my MW signed it off;

Where- which hospital

Who- my birth partner

Length of stay- that I wanted to establish breastfeeding

Students- happy for them to be there or not

Inducing labour- what I needed to know and how long

Assessments- internals/monitoring ect. I put my wishes to be active ect and SPD considerations

Pain relief- TENS use ect birth partner input, want to avoid

Assessed delivery/perineum; my opinions and I just put that I would take advise at the time

Baby- cutting the cord, vitamin k injection, placenta delivery, skin to skin.

Hope that helps! Good luck x

TBH I haven't checked my in birth notes! I will have a look, thanks.

When you mention 'induction', what do you mean by 'how long'- do you mean thinking about how long you would to wait before booking induction, sweeps etc...?

Ta!

If your notes are the green ones like mine it's on page 21

Yes with the induction stuff, I want this to be a real last resort and not keep dragging on ect so want to fully understand what they want to do and if there are any other options first which my MW was supportive with this

HiPP have a fairly straight-forward template that's printable:
www.hipp.co.uk/Uploads/Documents/Expert%20Advice/Pregnancy/My-birth-plan.pdf?gclid=CK3djta7lKgCFUEa4QodQEuACQ

Mine with DS was a series of bullet points and was basically this:

• DH to remain with me through-out
• I would like only gas and air for pain relief, please don't offer me drugs or an epidural, I will ask for them if I decide I want them
• if my labour slows or even stops please don't use artificial means to speed it, I would prefer encouragement and time to labour at my own pace
• unless it becomes medically necessary I don't want any intervention, this includes continuous fetal monitoring, use of IV equipment, and having my waters broken
• I would prefer to tear rather than have an episiotomy unless the tear would be very severe (third degree or higher)
• I want to be able to move around as much as possible but don't have a particular delivery position in mind, I'd like to try some until I find one that is comfortable, please advise me
• I don't mind a student being present but I do not want them to perform any examinations or procedures on myself or my baby
• please deliver my baby onto my chest and wait for the cord to stop pulsing before it is cut
• I would like an injection to bring on delivery of the placenta
• my baby will be formula fed and I'd like him to have Vitamin K orally
• I would like a shower as soon as possible after delivery followed by some alone time with our baby, availability of the delivery suite permitting, before being moved to the post-natal ward

I didn't get everything on my plan, there were some issues I had to compromise on - DS had to have a clip on his head to monitor his heart, I couldn't move around as the clip confined me to the bed, they had to break my waters to put it in (to be fair I was 10cm and they were about to break anyway), I was pushing for three hours and for the last hour they wanted to try something called "active pushing" sitting bolt upright with my feet in stirrups, and I really wanted a water birth but had a high risk pregnancy (lots of bleeding all the way through) so wasn't allowed. But having the plan showed my wishes and the midwife did her best to accommodate the things she could provide - just gas and air and no offer of other drugs, only one student (who only stayed an hour before going off-shift), DH there throughout, the shower, the alone time (she wrangled us two whole undisturbed hours bless her), baby on my chest, and all the rest of it.

Bear in mind that you might not get everything on your plan for whatever reason or that you might change your mind completely on the day itself, but it's still worthwhile having.

Best of luck!

If your notes are the yellow ones then it's on the back of the very last page

Thanks's CBear6- some very helpful advise there...

It's quite confusing really, as it's my 1st I don't know what to expect- and when you have no experience of something it's very hard to have opinions!