How did you decide your birth plan?

katiep337 · October 2012

Hey ladies,

I am trying to start researching for my birth plan, and am having trouble finding useful information. I am mostly concerned about natural vs. medicated, pitocin okay vs. not okay, baby in the nursery or with me in the hospital, etc. I really just want to do what's best for the baby, and am having trouble finding scientific, non-biased info.

I watched "The Business of Being Born" and thought it was interesting, but sort of biased.

Any recommendations? Links to articles or websites? Thank you SO much!!

Poppy523 · October 2012

I tried to find unbiased sources like Americanpregnancy.org and then started asking around with other moms. It is crazy how much information is out there and how biased it all is. I should warn you that I became obsessed! I am a FTM and was originally with a larger O.B. practice. After all my research I decided on an unmedicated birth which lead me to switch to a midwife practice who will let me birth at their birthing center which I think is much better for what I am looking for. But it is such a personal decision that the best thing you can do is look at as many sources as possible before making your decision. After deciding what I wanted I started to buy some books, but I have to say that I have noticed how incredibly biased the books are towards natural birth since that is what we have decided to do, so don't start reading those until you know what you want!

materialgirlpt · October 2012

This is a great question! I just started solidifing my birth plan, and reading/researching for it. I decided early I want a natural hopsital birth (I don't want a c-section, and am too scared to do a home birth. And because of my location the hospital is my only other option). I want to 'finalize' my birth plan in the next couple of weeks so I can start talking to my ob team. I am running into a little bit of flack for not wanting drugs which is annoying me. As for unbaised resources, I haven't found any, unless you want to read medical journals... I have been enjoying a book called, Natural Hospital Birth, the Best of Both worlds. My local library has it so I didnt have to buy it.

mjr12 · October 2012

This might be a good place for you to start . . .

https://evidencebasedbirth.com/

I encourage you to do your research and decide what you feel is best for you, your baby and your birth.

JuliaBug · October 2012

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer and your own experience will affect your plan.

With my first, I wanted a natural birth and to have my son with me the whole time. Then my water broke without warning and I had a 17 hour dry, back labor. I got the epidural and loved it. I accepted pitocin after 12 hours. DS was born at 3 in the morning and I was so exhausted and hyper sensitive to his every coo and wiggle that I couldn't sleep the next night either until I sent him to the nursery for a few hours. Almost nothing went according to my plan, but I had a great experience nonetheless.

katiep337 · October 2012

Thank you all! I will definitely check out the links and books you recommended.

sararn2004 · October 2012

JuliaBug:

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer and your own experience will affect your plan.

With my first, I wanted a natural birth and to have my son with me the whole time. Then my water broke without warning and I had a 17 hour dry, back labor. I got the epidural and loved it. I accepted pitocin after 12 hours. DS was born at 3 in the morning and I was so exhausted and hyper sensitive to his every coo and wiggle that I couldn't sleep the next night either until I sent him to the nursery for a few hours. Almost nothing went according to my plan, but I had a great experience nonetheless.

Totally agree. It's nice to feel prepared with a plan, but ultimately the situation will guide the actual process. With my second,(having my 1st's experience under my belt) they asked if I had a plan and I said only that I was positive I wanted an epidural(didn't have one with first) and if I could avoid an epesiotomy I wanted to(I had one with my first....awful, awful, awful).

krissywave · October 2012

I have to agree with what one of the other ladies said. I go off what feels right for me. I printed and looks at several birth plans that where kinda laid out step by step. I sat down with hubby and talked about each option. How we felt and what we thought was best for "us". My only concern is dont get it stuck in your head that you will not have a C section. As long as your open if it comes down to being an have to have medical emergency please get it. I am just asking to keep an open mind about worst case you will have a c section as an option. a girl I knew died because she wanted to wait. It got the the point where the staff couldnt do anything until something went really wrong and legaly they had to do something. Because of this she lost her life and now her son is being raised by her mother. So please never say never and keep and open mind.

Ebee27 · October 2012

I actually just downloaded the birth plan PDF here on The Bump! I'm giving it to my doula the next time we meet to go over, as she is really educated on all of the options, and then I'll bring it to my OB office (there are 4 OBs in this office, and I get whoever is on call, and I've only met 2 so far but haven't discussed any of this yet... figure I better start now if I want all 4 opinions!) but the doula will be my best sounding board. I talk about things with DH, but he keeps getting a "deer in the headlights" look about a lot of it, and has no strong opinions about it except that he'd hate to see me suffer... he doesn't understand why I wouldn't go for the epidural, and he's going to do his best to learn how to relieve pain naturally and give emotional support so I can hold out as long as I can! The only thing I know 100% is I do NOT want a c-section if at ALL possible, otherwise, I have no idea what birth is like and I don't consider anything set in stone. I also trust the medical professionals.

That being said, I just finished taking this free online birth class from babycenter.com. It was actually pretty informative about all kinds of aspects of birth! I highly recommend it. I like how you can pick up or leave off as you want, and the whole free thing doesn't hurt All I feel I can do is keep researching so I can make educated, well-thought-out decisions about how I envision my ideal birth experience, while mentally preparing for the possibility that it may not go as I hope.

Here are some links for ya:

https://www.babycenter.com/childbirth-class

https://pregnant.thebump.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-tools/articles/tool-birth-plan.aspx

KansasFarmMomma · October 2012

Like others have said, just keep an open mind.

I had a whole birth plan written out and I never even got around to taking it out of the bag. I also had great nurses though that listen to my verbal wishes. Also, a lot of it went right out the window. I specifically had in my birth plan, I wanted my son to stay in my room. I had my son at midnight and like a PP said, I was so sensitive to every little squeak that he made I couldn't sleep. I ended up sending him to the nursery where they were so good about bringing him in so I could nurse him when he was hungry. It let me get some sleep without waking up every 5 minutes. If you are flexible, you'll have a much better birth experience than if you go in there with a plan that you absolutely refuse to stray from.

osirismama · November 2012

I honestly did not have a birth plan. I wanted to make one, since every website i was on said to. But i could not figure out how. And then as I read, it talked about how you can't be set on your birth plan because you need to be flexible if something goes different.

I thought, okay, if i can't take the pain, then i will get an epi. I will go as long as i can dealing with the pain before i ask for anything.

Then it was if i need to be kicked started, i will wait as long as they will let me, and do it if i must.

I always had the thought that i wanted the baby with me. it was just, hey you need to get used to it. But then my mother and hubby said that if i got to exhausted, then have the nursery take him so i could get some sleep.

For DS1, i ended up all natural, just because labor was so fast, and the pain was not at all bad for me. He came early on his own. Had a few contractions, water broke, went to the hospital, got checked, got dressed, started pushing. Start of Labor to baby in arms was less than an hour. After i had him, i was not tired, since it was so fast, so i kept him in the room with me the entire time, excluding when he got circumsized, then i went for a walk outside.

This time i am just going to stick with the same plan. Do what i can.

Rosebean · November 2012

sararn2004:
JuliaBug:

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer and your own experience will affect your plan.

With my first, I wanted a natural birth and to have my son with me the whole time. Then my water broke without warning and I had a 17 hour dry, back labor. I got the epidural and loved it. I accepted pitocin after 12 hours. DS was born at 3 in the morning and I was so exhausted and hyper sensitive to his every coo and wiggle that I couldn't sleep the next night either until I sent him to the nursery for a few hours. Almost nothing went according to my plan, but I had a great experience nonetheless.

Totally agree. It's nice to feel prepared with a plan, but ultimately the situation will guide the actual process. With my second,(having my 1st's experience under my belt) they asked if I had a plan and I said only that I was positive I wanted an epidural(didn't have one with first) and if I could avoid an epesiotomy I wanted to(I had one with my first....awful, awful, awful).

continuing the agreement here. I am a FTM and my OB advised me to go to prenatal classes and have some "ideas" for my birth plan... But his ultimate advice was to NOT have a birth plan. After reading some birth stories, I had to agree with him. It seems like life has its own plan and very rarely does every birth turn out exactly as the mother wanted. What was important to me is the following: working with an OB team with lowered numbers for c-sections and episiotomies (which I know I have), learning what my options are to avoid inductions (I really don't like some of the stories I have seen of induced labor- it sounds like some women end up with a progressed labor that comes on so fast they have no time to adapt). I also will be asking my doctor about how often and under what circumstances they use suction or forceps, and if they allow squatting positions for pushing. I just want to know what is typical in procedures, so I can feel comfortable during delivery that my OB will guide me under each circumstance. But nothing for me is set in stone... Except a healthy baby coming out and an epidural....

How did you decide your birth plan?

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