Birth Plan?

mlivingston519

So are you guys going to write a birth plan?  I wrote one up a few months ago but its more like a short list of my wishes than "Lights must be dimmed from the time I'm dialated at a 3 to 8" and ridiculous stuff like that.

But, I'm certainly don't want to walk in with my birth plan and upset the nurses or staff thinking that I don't trust their professional judgement.

nanabanana06

With DD I had no birthplan and ended up with the exact opposite of what I wanted. This time my Doula helped me write up a birthplan. This way the doc and nurses all know my wishes and can suck it.

elvinnoe

No.. There's really nothing that I'm concerned about that isn't already standard at our hospital. I don't want to wear the hospital gown, but if they prefer I wear it, then I'll tough it out. I also want immediate skin to skin and I want to breastfeed as soon as possible, but again, both of those are standard there.  Other than that, I have no strong preferences toward anything.

lmb5109

My hospital paperwork came with a checklist of things I want/prefer, I was really surprised.

The only things I want are skin-to-skin right away (with DH if I have to have a c/s since LO is still breech).
BF right away.
Tear, not cut (which cutting is not preferred at my hospital).
Epidural when I ask for it.
DH to cut cord.
Able to play my music
And no students since it's a teaching hospital, just my nurses & my OB

dee12807

I didn't have one written, but when I got there (I was a scheduled induction) they asked me a ton of questions about what I hoped for. I was/am all for whatever happens happens. I let them know I was willing to do/try just about anything to avoid a C, but other than that I went with the flow and I was very happy with my whole experience.

mejane123

lmb5109:

My hospital paperwork came with a checklist of things I want/prefer, I was really surprised.

The only things I want are skin-to-skin right away (with DH if I have to have a c/s since LO is still breech).
BF right away.
Tear, not cut (which cutting is not preferred at my hospital).
Epidural when I ask for it.
DH to cut cord.
Able to play my music
And no students since it's a teaching hospital, just my nurses & my OB

Is there a benefit to tearing as opposed to cutting, or is that just a personal choice? I never would've thought to specify one or the other because I just always assumed cutting is always done to prevent tearing, but I've never done this before.  

 ETA: I don't mean to sound judgy, if that's how I came off, and if it's too personal a question, I totally understand.  I've just never heard of that and was just curious, is all.  

sschwege

I wrote up one last time and it was well received and followed.  So I plan to use the same one this time.  My hospital is known for being very low-intervention, so I think they are used to that sort of thing.

If you plan to write one I would suggest you make it brief and use bullets.  Also it's a good idea to find out what's hospital policy so you are not being redundant.   

ForeverEverAfter

mejane123:

lmb5109:

My hospital paperwork came with a checklist of things I want/prefer, I was really surprised.

The only things I want are skin-to-skin right away (with DH if I have to have a c/s since LO is still breech).
BF right away.
Tear, not cut (which cutting is not preferred at my hospital).
Epidural when I ask for it.
DH to cut cord.
Able to play my music
And no students since it's a teaching hospital, just my nurses & my OB

Is there a benefit to tearing as opposed to cutting, or is that just a personal choice? I never would've thought to specify one or the other because I just always assumed cutting is always done to prevent tearing, but I've never done this before.  

 ETA: I don't mean to sound judgy, if that's how I came off, and if it's too personal a question, I totally understand.  I've just never heard of that and was just curious, is all.  

Tears are easier to recover from. Also, episiotomies can weaken the tissues, actually causing a further tear at the end of the cut. They aren't used routinely anymore at most places, though, just for compound presentation or to make room for forceps. Like most interventions, great when needed, but best avoided IMO.

velazquezk1

I was told, by a nurse in OB who's a friend, that every person she has ever had come in with a strict birth plan has ended in a CSection. I'm a go with the flow kind of person and actually welcome students to learn from me since my Dad is a Dr who has residents all the time. I pretty much grew up around a revolving door of residents at our kitchen table. So. That's not something I'm opposed to. My hospital is very pro BF so immediately after we will have skin to skin and BF. That's pretty much all I was worried about. I love my group of practitioners I have a male OB, a female OB and a female MW who have never steered me wrong. If for some reason I have to be induced I'm going to ask for my water to be broken first, try to labor it out as long as possible, pitocin, drugs and see how far I can make it with that and then pitocin. They cut all drugs off at 8CM. I had planned a drug free birth in the beginning but I just don't know anymore.

perfectlove09

ForeverEverAfter:

mejane123:

lmb5109:

My hospital paperwork came with a checklist of things I want/prefer, I was really surprised.

The only things I want are skin-to-skin right away (with DH if I have to have a c/s since LO is still breech).
BF right away.
Tear, not cut (which cutting is not preferred at my hospital).
Epidural when I ask for it.
DH to cut cord.
Able to play my music
And no students since it's a teaching hospital, just my nurses & my OB

Is there a benefit to tearing as opposed to cutting, or is that just a personal choice? I never would've thought to specify one or the other because I just always assumed cutting is always done to prevent tearing, but I've never done this before.  

 ETA: I don't mean to sound judgy, if that's how I came off, and if it's too personal a question, I totally understand.  I've just never heard of that and was just curious, is all.  

Tears are easier to recover from. Also, episiotomies can weaken the tissues, actually causing a further tear at the end of the cut. They aren't used routinely anymore at most places, though, just for compound presentation or to make room for forceps. Like most interventions, great when needed, but best avoided IMO.

This is also why it's a good idea, in my opinion, to write a birth plan. Even if after its written you never take it to the hospital. It gives you the chance to research different practices, interventions, procedures, ect that you may never have known about. Now you know why some people choose to avoid/refuse an episiotomy. But let's say you didn't ask this question and your pushing your baby out, and your dr says "looks like we might need to do an episiotomy". That really isn't the best time to be learning what is. Yes the dr may be mentioning it and at the moment you might think "well the dr should know best..." But if it were in your birth plan that you didn't want one he/she may try other avenues first knowing that you do care weather you get one or not.
There are SO many things that are done as routine that you should learn about. And no, you shouldn't walk in with something super strict becuause you're probably setting yourself up for disappointment but to at least know what's going on, what certain terms mean and so on is probably a good idea. Be an informed patient : that's a smiley btw.
I hear all the time the remark that people who come in with super strict birth plans ALWAYS end up with a c section but I truely don't believe that at all. There's no way that EVERYONE of them end up with surgery just because they are picky. In fact that says a lot about the hospital and the drs if that's true....
I'm not saying this just to you : , another smiley, in general I think it's a good idea for every person, no matter what the procedure, to learn as much as they can about what's happening.

Nutella1979

I used the The Bump checklist. It's a 6 page checklist. Much less overwhelming than starting from scratch. It was a good exercise, there are things I had not considered.

mejane123

ForeverEverAfter:

mejane123:

lmb5109:

My hospital paperwork came with a checklist of things I want/prefer, I was really surprised.

The only things I want are skin-to-skin right away (with DH if I have to have a c/s since LO is still breech).
BF right away.
Tear, not cut (which cutting is not preferred at my hospital).
Epidural when I ask for it.
DH to cut cord.
Able to play my music
And no students since it's a teaching hospital, just my nurses & my OB

Is there a benefit to tearing as opposed to cutting, or is that just a personal choice? I never would've thought to specify one or the other because I just always assumed cutting is always done to prevent tearing, but I've never done this before.  

 ETA: I don't mean to sound judgy, if that's how I came off, and if it's too personal a question, I totally understand.  I've just never heard of that and was just curious, is all.  

Tears are easier to recover from. Also, episiotomies can weaken the tissues, actually causing a further tear at the end of the cut. They aren't used routinely anymore at most places, though, just for compound presentation or to make room for forceps. Like most interventions, great when needed, but best avoided IMO.

 Thanks! I never really thought of it that way, but I guess, as with a lot things, letting your body do what it needs to do naturally is better.  Letting it tear as much as it needs to seems to make more sense. 

PregnantPastor

Plan: have healthy baby. Induction is scheduled as advised by my doctor, but go to hospital if real labor comes before that. Give me drugs when I want them. That's about it. All the rest isn't a big deal. Sure it'd be nice to have some Christmas music on, to bf immediately, and so on but really I can deal as long as my dh is there.

Ab42187

Nutella1979:

I used the The Bump checklist. It's a 6 page checklist. Much less overwhelming than starting from scratch. It was a good exercise, there are things I had not considered.

This is what I used as well. It gave me some things I had never considered so it was good to go through and research or ask the doctor questions. 

StefandTodd

My health plan/OB/Hospital has this birth check list they have you fill out and talk with your doctor about around 28 weeks: https://www.permanente.net/homepage/kaiser/pdf/52087.pdf

So for my first birth (hospital birth) I filled that out, and added a couple things to it (I didn't want pitocin in the 3rd stage unless necessary (standard in many hospitals, including my very pro-NB friendly one), baby's first bath to be at home, delayed cord clamping until it stopped pulsing, to take the placenta home with me, for example).  I'm not doing one this time b/c I'm having a home birth and I know my MW and I are on the same page.  It helps that I've only seen her throughout my pregnancy, and am guaranteed she'll be the one delivering the baby...so no need for anything written out b/c we agree on all these things.

And the whole "people with birth plans have c-sections" schtick is so ridic.  Obviously, every mother's first and primary goal is a healthy baby and mother, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with research and preference in labor.  The fact that there's this attempt to make anyone feel like there *is* something wrong with having preferences and doing research is just scary and oh so wrong in itself. 

gakester8

I worked with my doula, obgyn and a birth planner at the hospital to create my birth plan. It doesn't talk about things like lighting, music, but it does talk about medical process preferences and pre-existing conditions. 

Bride-hilda

I wasn't worried about a birth plan until I decided to go the natural route. When I talk about it my DH keep saying, "Yeah, go natural until you need the epidural," and it keeps re-confirming the fact that I'm gonna need a birth plan. I also want to include things like, "No forceps or vacuums no matter what! No episiotomys if AT ALL possible," etc. It also needs to include my allergy information. The birth plan will more likely be for me, so that I don't have to remember a list of all the stuff I want so I want be laboring and suddenly see a vacuum and be like, "No! No vacuum!" Lists calm me.