Birth Plan

[Kt2108]

Hi all

So I'm going to start drafting/thinking more about my birth plan- ive downloaded the NHS guide but would be interested to see what other things you all included that I may miss out?

Obviously I know that sometimes, more often than not, things don't go to plan etc etc, and that some people don't write one- which is fine. But I personally would like to have on to hand for the option of potentially using it, whichever way that may be!

So any help/input is appreciated :-)

People don’t bother writing them because they are generally a load of shit. The midwives didn’t even bother looking at mine with DC1. I had requested a water birth so I had to ask because they didn’t bother looking. I wasn’t allowed a water birth because my heart rate was increased. I’d also said no pain relief except gas&air (how naive 🤣), that went out of the window after 12 hours of solid back to back contractions. He was born via forceps due to shoulder dystocia in the end.

I didn’t bother writing one for DC2&3 as a result. Just went with the flow.

my main one was that if baby was high up then absolutely no high, rotational forceps (this was standard practice in the hospital for foetal distress) and to do a c-section straight away instead of attempting forceps. I think that’s a common one where women have a choice but rarely realise.

Others were please not to invite ‘dad’ down to the business end to ‘watch’ the birth and not pressurise him to cut the cord. Again two standard things I didn’t want.

I found everything else I was asked about at the time

I used writing a birth plan as a way to think about my options before hand. Even when I had super different things happen than my ideal the birth plan helped me know what I wanted.

I never wrote birth plans for any of my three. I couldn't see the point of trying to plan the unpredictable, so I didn't.

I adopted the "go with the flow" approach. It seemed to be as good a plan as any.

Thanks everyone! I do know that things can change so quickly and it may not be looked at. I was more interested in key things to write that I absolutely didn't want or knew I 100% wanted for example cord cutting, needles for placenta etc and just wasn't sure if there was anything else that fitted into that category I didn't know about as I haven't done it before
Under no illusion that it will be followed 100% in regards to the unpredictable x

By all means read up on what the possibilities are, but it doesn’t always work out that way! I didn’t write one but my general idea was I wanted:

A natural birth
No epidural
Not loads of people in the room

I had:

An emergency csection
An epidural to assist with above
About a dozen people in the room

Have a think about-
Whether you'd be happy for a student to be at your birth
Delayed cord clamping
If you want baby to be wiped down before being passed to you
Managed or natural 3rd stage of labour
Vitamin K - injection or oral or not at all

As long as you're open minded they can be really helpful

Also put on if you do/don’t want to breastfeed as the baby will feed PDQ after birth.

Yeah I've got the key things such as;
Cord clamping, cutting
Sex reveal
Feeding
Put on chest
Vitamin k yes/no
Placenta delivery option
Happy with students etc etc.

Thanks everyone :-)

I'm curious about this. I don't want anyone near me with forceps or a ventouse and I have made it massively clear to DP that I would rather have a C-section. How much notice are they likely to take? I'm considering making that my entire birthplan...

So I'd think really carefully about what you say about pain relief. I am a bit crunchy and my birth plan for DC1 said that I didn't want pain relief. As it turns out I am more wussy than crunchy had a long and very painful labour and when it came to it very much wanted all the pain relief. But because I'd said in my birth plan I didn't want it I found lots of obstacles to getting some including being told I couldn't have an epidural.

For DC2 "epidural" was my entire birth plan.

hiccupgate I had an EMCS and then did want to attempt forceps first and I said no. I had to labour then for a further 2 hours before they did the csec. The baby was not in distress though so I think this was the reason for the delay. But they didn't force it. However when I said no to the third hormone drip they ignored that so probably hit and miss.

I am probably in the minority here. My midwife made me do a brief birthplan during my 32 week appointment. All it said was I wanted an epidural and didn't want pethedine. I wanted to be relaxed as I knew anything could happen. If i were to do it again, I would say yes to pethedine because that stuff is glorious, no to epidural because it doesn't work anyway and no hormone drip.

I found the positive birth book to be excellent at helping write a birth plan. Even if you don’t read the book, they have free downloadable symbols you can use to make a picture based birth plan. Really easy and quick to read for anyone involved in your labour. I made several versions of a plan, a birth centre option, a labour ward option and an emergency c section one. Made me think through each eventuality and what I’d want in those situations.

Not a single midwife looked at my birth plan except for one the day after birth who read it and gave a wry chuckle - literally nothing on it was relevant to what happened. I knew it would only be guidance and that both was unpredictable but looking back I can't see the point in writing one, as you'll be asked about things as you go along, so much changes - including your own mind and tolerances - and no one seems to look anyway... I'd read up and do all the research so you know what you'd prefer but don't put too much stock in the piece of paper in the end.

My active labour only lasted about two hours so no one really looked at my birth plan. However had things gone differently it would have been important to have professionals read it in light of things like pain relief and not being left alone at any point.

Things like skin to skin, cord cutting etc were all checked by the midwife at the time as well. They were pretty good at checking in with me or my birth partner

Personally next time round I'll be writing in consent for a section if absolutely needed.

I didn't think to with my first and during labour they were talking to me about potentially having one when my BP rocketed and DS heartbeat crashed and it was all taken out of my hands.

Even though a plan on a VBAC having it in my birth plan will make me feel (on a purely psychological level) more like I have an element of control because it's "in the plan".

I see no point in writing one other than to make yourself feel better before the birth, in reality no one will take any notice.

I think the process of writing s birth plan is probably more important than what you put in it. Doing your research and educating yourself on your options so you understand what each one means will be much more helpful than having a rigid set of “wants”. I agree that it is helpful to write down the points that you don’t want to happen and also explain this to your birth partner if you are having one. Plans frequently change dependent on the circumstances but doing your research and discussing it with your partner is going to be the most helpful part of writing this plan.

I had things in mine like: no epidural, no induction, not to labour on my back. In reality only one of these was adhered to but it was because I changed my mind rather than no one paid attention to me. I had the option of pretty much anything I wanted (straightforward induction without a drip) but it turns out that once in established labour that I didn’t actually want what I wanted anyway!! But because I’d done the research and talked through it with DH it didn’t much matter- I still knew what was happening and we still had a short discussion at each stage. Whilst my birth plan wasn’t helpful in the end, the process of making it definitely was.

Thanks cheesecake helpful to hear your experience.

I wrote mine out before. Didn't like the NHS one or the other templates as I like to be stupid organised (don't worry I am fully aware it probably won't go to plan anyway) so have used elements of different ones I saw online. I found a great website that was american based but had little logos, so I've split my plan into during labour, immediately after the birth and in case of emergency C-section and included what I do and don't want. In each section I have used the little logos at the top of the section.

I've pinched all the logos and put them on an image document if anyone is interested.

If you need a bigger version, type into google "Free Visual Birth Plan Template (That Nurses Won’t Scoff At)" and it's the link under that title.

My trust dont seem to do birth plans anymore. Briefly discussed with the midwife last week and the thought trail seems to be that women write in depth birth plans that very rarely go to plan and can lead to post natal depression when the mother feels like it wasnt what they wanted.

Instead there is a questionnaire (which i havent read yet)that covers the main things so you can state a choice but it is all on the basis that birth is unpredictable and the best outcome is a safe delivery for mother and baby.

@rarfy That sounds like a really good alternative

Must say, after 36 years as an anaesthetist, I regard birth plans with amusement. I’ve lost count of the number of epidurals I’ve put into exhausted mothers who found that whale song and chanting really didn’t cut it, pain wise!
And in my experience, the more determined the patient was for a natural delivery, the law of Sod ensured that she was more likely to have a C. section.
By all means jot down some wishes, but be aware that’s all they are. Things can go very differently on the day. Much like wishing for sunshine for next week’s barbecue - have a back up in case it rains!
One thing you can rely on - your obstetricians will have you (and your baby’s) safety as top priority, and will act accordingly, as the trained professionals that they are. They know a damn sight more about the safe management of labour than you do, so try and trust their judgment rather than your birth plan.
Good luck, and I’m sure you’ll be fine, whatever the mode of delivery!

As previously stated it's not about pain or wanting to control anything as I realise it's out of my hands. It's for the things I can choose and want to choose eg cord cutting, sex reveal, baby being cleaned. And was wanting to know if there were similar things to those above which I've missed out

I'm not under any illusion that things can change in an instant and that's why I haven't asked about other stuff

But anyone being a negative nancy isn't very nice to read whether I/anyone else wanted to write it down to each little detail.

Thanks for the positive comments though, in general! And hose symbols look useful too 😊 x