3. Baby Care Instructions
List the vital aspects of your baby’s care once he or she is born.
- With regard to cord cutting: who will cut the cord? Would you like to wait until the umbilical cord stops pulsing? Will you be banking your baby’s cord blood?
- Would you like to bond with your baby skin to skin before he is rushed off and bathed? Ask to delay bathing, eye drops, the Vitamin K shot and immunizations while you connect with your baby. You may also opt out of having your baby immunized at the hospital and wait to see your pediatrician. *We are also taking our own non-toxic baby shampoo and soap to the hospital for our son’s first bath.
- Address whether you’d like to breastfeed exclusively, and if you do, make sure nurses know not to supplement your baby with formula, bottle feed him, or give him a pacifier.
- Note whether you would like your baby boy to be circumcised.
- Would you like your baby to room-in with you at all times, or go to the hospital nursery?
4. Give a Copy of Your Birth Plan to Your Doctor and Take Extra Copies to the Hospital for Labor & Delivery Nurses
Give a hard copy of your Birth Plan to your doctor or midwife, and she will put it in your chart (which is important in the event she’s not on call when you go into labor, and another doctor will need to get up to speed on your wishes). Additionally, take 3 extra copies of your birth plan to the hospital to distribute to the nurses. They will go over it and decide which nurse may be the best fit for you based on your preferences. (Some nurses work better with drug-free laboring mamas, etc.) It’s good to have extra copies in the event there are nurse shift changes during your labor and the new nurse on duty needs a copy!
Share your birth plan with your labor coach and in-room support team so they can help encourage and back you up on your goals and wishes, and so you’ll all be on the same page, literally.
5. Realize that a Plan is not a Guarantee
I look back on my first birth plan and laugh at how naive I was with some of my requests. Others were right on the money, and I’m so glad I included them. But the most important thing to remember is that even the ‘best laid plans’ sometimes go awry, and labor is a force of nature – it is very hard to control how it goes. It’s best to keep an open, flexible mind and to roll with the punches, because labor and delivery are as good at delivering the unexpected as they are at delivering a baby. Your birth plan is a well thought out list of your preferences and beliefs, but sometimes in order to attain everyone’s ultimate goal, to deliver a healthy baby from a healthy mom, different measures must be taken. An honest discussion with your healthcare provider, via a concise birth plan, will put you on the best path to achieving your desired birth experience.
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If you feel you want the extra support, then you should look into hiring a doula. You can find a list of certified doulas at DONA.ORG You can also see if there is a list of voulnteer doulas who are in need of births for their certification.