Birth plan

[Lucylastic]

Hello ladies, is anyone writing a birth plan? I'm in 2 minds, in an ideal world it would be nice to have but surely the majority of births don't actually go to plan? I was hoping to use hypnobirthing, I need to start practising!

 

[Lucky2015]

Hi,
I didn't do a birth plan for that reason, it doesn't always go to plan you don't know how you are going to feel at the time.
good luck

 

[mrz85]

no I havent didnt with my first two as well xx

 

[russellmuscle]

I did a lose birthing plan, ie expressed I didnt want epidural but other than that I went with the flow. I went overdue and needed induced.

Next time Id like to try a water birth, but happy as long as baby comes healthy and relatively smoothly.

I loved my last labour and everything came natrually.

As long as you dont expect to have your labour by the book Id do one, if in an ideal world you could have had the opporunity to exercise your desires why not? I don't see the harm?

Some ladies do get to follow their birthing plan to an extent, but not always to the tee.

Good luck!!

xxxx

 

[beanie5]

Think I've got one in a drawer that I was given but haven't looked at it yet, feel a little in the dark about it all since I have no idea about what options there are let alone have an opinion on what I want! it probably wont go exactly to plan but if there is anything you want to do then it's probably worth having it there so that it can be accommodated if possible

 

[kaz1983]

I had one first time but didny go to plan so this time il prob not bother i hav requested an episiotomy as had to hav one first time an id rather be cut than tear i wanted hubby to cut the cord but didnt go to plan so think we will be winging most of it this time xx

 

[Baby2sky]

The only things i included were things like no students present, hubby cutting cord, skin to skin straight away, yes to vit k... But tbh they asked me all these things anyway. I know a lady on here once posted about having a plan for someone to express your milk incase you have a c section whilst being put under which I had never considered and thought it was an important point xx

 

[Ella1979]

That was me! Birth plans aren't just for when things go right. I never realised you had to give written consent for midwives to express milk from you if you weren't able to do it yourself (my community midwife explained this a few weeks after I'd had my daughter and said she was advising her other ladies to put it in their birth plans). I had an emergency c-sec, was poorly myself and didn't get to see/hold my daughter for 3 days, by which time my milk just wasn't coming in properly at all.

So for my second pregnancy, I had a very short birth plan: giving permission to express milk from me if I wasn't able to feed my son directly and no giving of anti-sickness medications (I had a horrible reaction to one that was given just because I felt sick moving from the bed to a chair... after I'd had nothing to eat/drink for over 24 hours). In the end, I had a lovely c-sec, was able to feed my son as soon as we were out of theatre. But it was reassuring to know the plan was there.

 

[MrsS143]

I had mine written
Water birth, dihydrocodeine tablet, gas and air at a push, being very active, relaxing music playing, mininal monitoring, deliver placenta without the injection, delayed cord clamping, skin to skin

My waters went but i didnt go into labour myself
So had to be induced 24hrs later

So induction = no water birth, constant monitoring, therefore couldnt move about. Forcing your body to labour hurts more so ended up getting diamorphine at 6cm. Baby got distressed. They had to scrape his head to draw blood when i was in labour bless him. There was too much going on. So i couldn't stand extra sound (all that music we downloaded was pointless lol)
He came out floppy and blue with cord round his neck. So they had to take hm away for oxygen. So cord needed cut straight away. I figured... Nothings gone to plan so far... Just gimme the bloody jag to manage the third stage of delivery lol

So its worthwhile having a plan of preferences in mind... But yeah... Be realistic itll go how itll go x

 

[Phoenix85]

It is definitely worth having a birth plan, not just for during labour, but afterwards. Things like uninterrupted skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, desire to breastfeed etc.

If you end up with a less than ideal midwife, maybe it won't go to plan, but most (good) midwives WILL read your plan and try to follow it as much as they can.

If I hadn't written on my birth plan that I wanted skin-to-skin with my last baby she would have been taken off me, weighed and wrapped (the 2nd midwife was about to do that but the 1st midwife stopped her and told her I had written in my birth plan I wanted uninterrupted skin to skin).

Just putting this out there, but you have the right to refuse anything you do not want. They should give you all the options, not just push what is easiest for them (like continuous monitoring).

 

[westy100]

Look for free birthing plan on the web, lots out there that you can download

 

[T84]

Like the others say Defo worth doing if there's something you feel strongly about. Even if it's to keep you right on the day cos it's easy to get caught up in it all then remember later there was something you wanted to do ie delayed chord clamping x

 

[Juice]

I'd definitely advise having a plan to outline certain things that you do or don't want because you may not be in a position to express those things whilst in labour.

My birth plan just said that I wanted pain relief when I asked, delayed cord clamping, and if I ask someone to stop talking to me because I'm in too much pain to listen, they have to shut up! Haha I get very angry when I'm in pain.

I had an epidural, delayed clamping didn't go to plan because baby wasn't breathing, and as soon as a contraction started, nonone spoke to me until it had finished. So all in all, not a bad result.

You just have to understand that the word "plan" really is the wrong word for it! It's more like a list of wants.

 

[twinkle90]

I'm not writing out a plan. As my labour last time didn't go smoothly. Xx

 

[SAHF]

Hello ladies, is anyone writing a birth plan? I'm in 2 minds, in an ideal world it would be nice to have but surely the majority of births don't actually go to plan? I was hoping to use hypnobirthing, I need to start practising!

I wrote one, then the day after at my 36 week midwife appointment we found out our baby is breech! So, that's my birth plan out of the window ha!