The vast majority of pregnancies and deliveries do not go according to plan. Because no mother knows exactly what she wants until she is in the midst of it, it is not to imply that anything crazy happens. In addition, births can take longer or shorter than predicted, and occasionally something unexpected occurs. In order to have the labor and delivery experience you want, it’s helpful to have a birth plan to share with your birth team.
Have an open discussion with your doctor about how to best support your birth plan, so you’ll know what works and what doesn’t and how the team normally approaches birth plans. By talking to her in advance, you’ll be able to get on the same page and create a birth plan that everyone on the team can understand. It’s preferable to know immediately if modifications need to be done.
Reduce your overall strategy to one or two pages at most. Good birthing teams are more concerned about you and your child than they are about a piece of paper. Ideally, it should be brief enough to be scanned and read quickly. Your companion, as well as any accompanying family or friends, can fill in the blanks. If you’re having a C-section rather than a planned vaginal birth, that one-to-two-page document should include your plan for what to do if that happens. Everything can happen at any time.
A childbirth education class can give you the information you need to make informed decisions about labor and delivery interventions, C-sections, and newborn care, such as natural and synthetic pain relief (delayed cord cutting, skin-to-skin bonding before Apgar scoring, breastfeeding, etc.). If you have a trained childbirth educator, you may be confident that they are presenting this information based on solid research. After that, you’ll be able to craft a birthing strategy that is informed by your newfound knowledge.
The idea of laboring, standing up and then squatting when it comes time to give birth is fine unless you discover that your hospital wants women to be lying down and hooked to fetal monitors at all times during the delivery process. Preparing ahead of time for labor and delivery protects you from making plans that are impossible to carry out while you are in labor, which may be extremely frustrating.
Which anti-inflammatory or pain medication works best for you? How do you prefer to soften your stools? Is it possible that certain narcotics make you nauseated or sick? It is important to give information about postpartum care as well.
