Birth Plans

[Hotpotpie]

Anyone got time to give me a few ideas?

I suffer with OCD and I get very obsessional about routines, and ive found that I keep well if I totally avoid them if that makes sense. Ive refused to plan pretty much anything so far, and a typical example would be that ill breast feed if I can, but if I cant I have the bottles bought and waiting and a small amount of formula, figure its a totally non pressured solution

So anyway my current birth plan in my head is as follows:

I dont like to plan too much it makes me stressed. This is my first baby, I dont know what pain relief I will want. I would like to start with gas and air but am ruling nothing out as labour progresses

I may want to use a birthing pool if there is one available but until im in it im not to sure

I get very grumpy when im stressed, I ask only that you ignore me I dont want fussing over, just to be given the facts as I need them

see shortest birth plan in history - is there anything blatant im missing??

My birth plan:

I wanted a natural birth, no pain relief and to be able to move around but I'll do whatever needs to be done to get the baby out.

Yours sounds fine, it's best to be prepared but don't plan too much because you don't know how it's going to be until you're there.

do you have opinions on having skin to skin straight away? or would you like baby cleaned up first

is there anyone you want to cut the chord?

these are things that you might have an opinion about, and of you do, you could add.

thanks Nannyl they are both great suggestions - and that reminded me, apparently at the hospital Im going to apparently they quite often take the baby and give it its first bath without telling you, would be gutted if they did that so will add that as well

Do hospitals still do that? I was told not to give baths until she was 6 weeks old. My hospital even told us we weren't allowed to use baby wipes, they were very strict!

Fondle That's as bonkers as hospitals taking babies away for a first bath!

Hotpotpie Have you thought about things like your third stage - do you want the injection or a physiological third stage?

If you don't make any noises one way or the other then it's likely you'll just be given the injection as a matter of course, rather than them discussing the pros and cons there and then with you.

Other than that, if you are happy with the plan you've come up with then it's fine. Mine is about 2 pages long, someone else on here had one with a contents list. It's about what you're comfortable with.

Mine is about 2 pages long. Basically covers: pain relief, how I might want the first stage / second stage to go, and what I want for the 3 stage i.e natural or injection, skin-to-skin, DH to cut the cord when it stops pulsing.

Also, do you want the baby delivered straight to your chest, to bf straight away, will the baby have vitamin k - by injection or orally? I also say I don't want the baby cleaned and that DH will nappy and dress the baby when we are ready.

Are you happy to have student midwives or student doctors in the room?

Maybe think about what might happen if you need to go to theatre after delivery for any reason - do you want DP/DH to stay with baby and have skin to skin?

Any views on what you might want to happen if you have a c-section?

wow lots to think about, I knew Id never get away with a couple of lines :o
fondle we have been told no baby wipes as well so many rules for such a tiny little thing!

Off to write some stuff down - you never know if may even reach a page yet :o

Hi Hotpie, I think its fine to keep it short and sweet. I did with DD1. Literally birth plan said "no pain relief except G&A, no intervention (i.e. forceps/ventuse) unless absolutely necessary, active labour".

You/DH are talking with the midwife the whole time in labour so can answer a lot of the questions re cutting of the cord, skin to skin etc without writing it all down. Just because its not in your birth plan doesn't mean they won't raise things with you. However if you want to write it all down that is fine too.

Hotpotpie and Fondle I'm just going to add this:

They cannot tell you that you are not allowed to bath your baby or to use baby wipes. Unless you are doing something that endangers the health or safety of your baby, then these decisions are yours as the baby is yours.

If the midwives want to fanny about with bowls of warm water and cotton wool and attempt to clean tarry new baby poo from your child whilst you watch them from your bed, then tell them they are welcome to, otherwise use wipes if you want, and bathe your child if you want.

Babies don't need to be bathed regularly or in anything other than plain water, but the choice as to when and how often to do so isn't down to the hospital :)

No baby wipes?? Whyever not??

One thing I'll be making sure I put in mine is that if they feel I need an episiotomy then I want a local injected before they do it, I don't remember much from DC1 2nd stage aside from the pain of being cut which they said I wouldn't feel as was so stretched out, but I nearly went through the roof not to mention the sound of it

Have you thought about maybe having the lights dimmed? Would that help you do you think?

Oh my baby's almost 5 months now so nobody's telling me anything anymore. They did refuse all the women on my ward to use baby wipes but they also offered to do all nappy changes for me too so I can't really complain.

Hotpotpie My birthplan was pretty much the same as yours in the OP because I wasn't that arsed about the whole 'natural birth' thing and wanted to keep all my options open. It worked fine (easy labour). The only thing I added was that I wanted skin-to-skin as soon as possible to try to get breastfeeding established.

hotpot I didn't have a plan at all and it all went fine, the midwife didn't seem to even notice that I didn't have a birth plan but then I was happy to just go along with what they suggested re the vitamin k and injection for the placenta. I was asked if I wanted the baby passed straight to me, asked about the injection and vitamin k and they suggested that I breast feed as soon as he wanted if I wanted to. I am not saying you shouldnt plan just that you don't need to if you don't want to, it's fine to wing it. I had my own reasons for not planning too much as do you. Do whatever you feel comfortable with. Also the baby wipes thing is because they are more likely to get nappy rash, you can get sensitive ones for when they are little and it is up to you if you use them or not.

I find the baby being passed to the mother a bit of a strange idea tbh.

Starlight Really? Why?

starlight what do you mean? I would have thought most people want to hold their baby as soon as they can.

I suppose because it perpetuates the idea that someone delivers the baby. Unless you are in a very unfortunate position you can simply reach down/sit back and 'collect' the baby yourself.

Why does someone have to give him/her to you? The wee thing is still attached to you. Easy peasy unless you drugged and on your back I guess.

I'll bet there are very few women that can't reach their own fanjos!

Ah, that makes sense to me I was thinking it odd that you were in the 'having baby whizzed away for cleaning etc' camp, having been on other birth related threads with you!

I suppose in many cases the baby is touched by the MW as it's born, unless its been specified for no-one to touch except mum/dad, or if baby is born with mum on all fours or in a pool

I delivered my own baby by myself at home.... very quickly and with no pain relief

my baby "shot out" and landed in the sofa (was not caught)..... my midwife who had just arrived minutes earlier picked up my baby who had the chord around her neck several times and looked after her for about perhaps 1 minute, and got her to begin breathing

I honestly didnt feel i could move, and didnt move.... i was still "stuck" kneeling on the sofa... after about a minute or so i did turn round and hold my baby skin to skin, but she was no where near my fanjo, and i dont think i could have reached her either.

Just about the only thing my midwife did was pick up my baby and pass her to me... no monitoring of either of us, but i am sure glad that she did!

Ok, I thought the same as flisspaps that you wanted the baby taken away from the mother. I understand now and most women probably can but I suppose it depends on if you've had forceps, ventouse, epidural, c-section, etc whether or not you can do that. I wasn't going to be pulling my baby out myself during my c-section so I did need her to be passed straight to me.

I suppose it is the whole 'being done to' bit I find strange and disempowering.

The midwife is there to assist and ensure the process is sage for you both. It might be necessary for her to touch the baby (although research seems to suggest that the higher the risk the less so she should, so why with a low risk birth?) and that is fine, but to give the baby to the mother keeps the power and control in the hands of the HCP which whilst I'm sure is done with kindness still perpetuates the imbalance we have. I think it is a bit disempowering for the woman tbh.

Quite true. I can reach my abdomen perfectly well but will not be collecting my baby from there.