Birth plan

[Madallie]

I am a bit late with this, I'm 36.5 wks pg but can I just ask what info you put on your birth plan? This is my 2nd dc and although I was very open in my first birth plan, nothing at all happened the way I would have preferred e.g. I was laying down, hooked up to all sorts of machines, a drip, had a catheter etc. I was fine with things not going the way I had said because I know that's the nature of labour, you can't really plan for it. However, because of this I am having difficulty in thinking what info to put on this birth plan.

Any advise.

Snap! This time I am just going to say that I would like to have as little intervention as possible but list any pain killers I don't want ( that didn't work for me ) and those that I will have in order of preference!

Also mention decision over placenta injection and vit shot for baby, and wanting skin to skin immediately.

you could start with the things you dont want. they are sometimes just as important as the things you do. perhaps a list of them to start you?

I said that I wanted to use the birth pool, which didn't work out as it was in use, but lots of other things were good to have put down.

I mentioned that I wanted to be encouraged to be active as much as possible, which the midwives were very good at doing. I wasn't particularly enthusiastic at the time, but in hindsight I was glad I'd written that down.

I also asked that questions be directed at DH initially so he could act as a bit of a filter and I could be completely antisocial get in 'the zone'.

As my iron levels were low, I said I wanted a physiological 3rd stage unless I had lost a lot of blood, in which case to give me the injection. The latter happened, but because it had all been planned for there was no confusion so, again, I'm glad I wrote it down.

Good luck, OP, hope this one sticks to the script

Thanks, good ideas. I've written about placenta injection and vit k as i know they are very important.

I'm not sure I know all the pain relief options really. I obviously know gas and air, pethidene and an epidural but not sure about others.

I don't know of its helpful, but have you seen the template on the NHS site?
It might give you a few more ideas of what to include.

Thankslast I haven't seen the template but will have a look for it. May be helpful. Thanks again.

I'd keep it simple and try to give an idea of generally what you want - eg. staying active/birth pool or as many drugs as quickly as possible

Vitamin K, 3rd stage, delayed cord clamping?

This may sound silly but want is meant by delayed cord clamping and what are the benefits to this. Improbably should know this (blush).

It means waiting til the cord has stopped pulsing before cutting it, so the baby gets the benefit of all the blood in the placenta. Sometimes it isn't possible if the baby needs to be whisked straight off for resuscitation etc.

Ah, thank you. I think I did know that but had just forgotten. Thanks again.

I'm not sure how normal this is but when I went in to have DD no-one even asked about my birth plan.
To be fair, things didn't exactly pan out as we'd hoped from then on and it didn't even cross my mind to discuss it with anyone.

I don't remember discussing it with anyone once I was in hospital (I'd transferred in by ambulance) but they must have read it, because even after the birth I heard someone say "no injection, they want oral vitamin K". A lot of stuff couldn't happen (like the physiological 3rd stage, delayed cord cutting) but I was very impressed that they still looked at what I wanted and did what they could.