Things To Include In Your Birth Plan

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Are you nervous? Excited? Most importantly are you finding yourself being busy? Understandable as there is plenty to be getting on with. Aside from informing your family and friends, attending baby showers, hospital checks etc make sure you make time to create your birth plan.

If you aren’t sure what to include here are a few ideas for you.

People 

First on our list are the people.

You can dictate who you want in the room to a degree. Once you go into labour you will see a lot of your doctor and nurses, but when it comes to family and friends you can say exactly who you want with you. This can be for during and after the birth too.

You will want the names of the most important people on this document. Your primary doctor, your midwife, your birth partner/s and an emergency contact are all essential but after that, you can lay how you want visits to happen after your child is born.

Add as much or as little detail as you would like.

Medical Instructions

This is a fairly important part of the document. Doctors should already be aware of your medical history and medications that you take but for other people coming in and out of the room, it would be a great idea to include a bit of your history and other medically relevant things.

Are you planning on donating or privately storing your baby’s cord blood? Do you want it to be disposed of as medical waste? These are things to include in your document, especially if you are planning on privately storing cord blood or the placenta. Note down the company you are working with and all the details of the process. If you are donating it have that noted down with any relevant information just so you can easily find it.

Allergies, especially if you have any to medications, are especially good to note down on your birth plan just in case. Firstly it can be good to have a quick-to-locate list and secondly if you are planning to have pain relief of any kind during your labour, you can avoid anything that may harm you.

Environment 

Dictate to your care team how you want the room to be during and after your labour.

You can choose your music and probably whether you are going to listen to it with headphones or if you would like it out loud.

You can choose if you want the lights dimmed or off during the majority of your labour. This one may have to be slightly flexible of course from the medical side of things but certainly, while you are labouring and when you have given birth you can have the lights exactly how you want them.

Best of all and something you need to communicate is how you would like to be informed of what is going on. If you want to know every little detail good or bad (we hope mostly good) tell your team. If you would rather be left to get on with things unless there are serious problems, tell your team. This is your labour after all, so take charge.

Make it Your Own

Whether you choose to start from scratch or use an online template, make this document exactly how you want. On the day it can give you such peace of mind to have everything you need in one place. Your birth partner, midwife and doctors can also benefit from it. Add exactly what you want, even if you think it unimportant. This is something you have full control over so make it your own.

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