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Natural Birth
Birth plan?
I'm planning on having a waterbirth at a birth center with MWs. I don't know where to start on a birth plan....since it's not a hospital I don't really know what I need to have written down and what would just be unnecessary to tell a MW. I am planning on making a back up birth plan of the "in case it's not perfect" and we end up in a hospital for any reason plan. I just don't know what it is MWs like to know....
Any suggestions?
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Re: Birth plan?
I am birthing in a birth center as well (adjoining to a hospital) but they wanted to have a standard birth plan out
Here's my thread:
https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/65006491.aspx
Even though it's a birth center and they are 100% advocates of all things natural there are some things mothers don't all have the same opinions about so they wanted to know what I expected/wanted out of my birth.
I left out like don't offer pain meds because obviously that's not a "norm" for them. but monitoring, you want to be able to use different labor positions, you want delayed cord clamping, just because like I said not everyone feels the same way about it.. and it gives them the ability to support you the best way they can.
THe BC I'm delivering at doesn't recognize birth plans at all. They said they might be helpful for MOM to get all of her ideas about an ideal birth down on paper, but they won't read it. They only have a handful of women eligible to deliver there each month and there are only 4 MWs... they know their patients and talk through everything with us ahead of time. If we move over to L&D in the middle of labor, the MW comes with us and will continue to support the most natural birth we desire.
The MW explaining it said something along these lines, "You can't plan birth. It happens the way it happens. When you're in OUR care, we will do our best to make sure that you're health and safety come first. We don't offer pain medication unless you ask for it... at which point you'll leave the BC and go across the hall to receive it. We don't do continuous monitoring. We don't use any interventions at all unless they're ABSOLUTELY necessary, and in those cases, we'll have an OB come in to perform what needs to be done. Our birth plan for you is that you arrive at the center sometime after 7 cm and before you're ready to push. You push out your baby. We put the baby on your chest and we leave the cord pulsing as long as we can. We will help you with latch if that's what you desire, but we do highly support breastfeeding and once baby is on your breast, we hope he stays there until college. That's it. That's your birth plan."
I LOVE that MW, BTW.
My doula uses this questionnaire, and I found it very helpful in drafting mine.
https://www.childbirth.org/interactive/ibirthplan.html