as a birth educator, i recommend that everyone do a birth plan. it's not an instruction sheet, it's a statement about your deepest wishes for your birth. it lets your providers and nurses know just what you want so they can best serve you. it doesn't have to be just for natural births. for example, if you have a little boy, you can state you don't want circumcision or you can state whether you want the hep b vaccine or you state who will be attending the birth with you. it's just a good way to give a lot of information succinctly.
i used a birth plan with my hospital birth of my first daughter. it helped have fetal monitoring with only a doptone and no external monitor. that was wonderful for me. the nurse didn't like it (because it was against hospital protocol) but because my dr had signed it the on-call dr honored it and i got what i wanted.
when i had a homebirth with my second child, i didn't use a birth plan because there was not a single thing my midwife would do that i didn't want. i've heard it said that if you need a birth plan, you need a new provider. in other words, find someone who routinely does it your way. you shouldn't have to say pretty please to get what you want. however, where i live, that would mean only homebirth, and some people for various reasons don't choose that.
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as a birth educator, i recommend that everyone do a birth plan. it's not an instruction sheet, it's a statement about your deepest wishes for your birth. it lets your providers and nurses know just what you want so they can best serve you. it doesn't have to be just for natural births. for example, if you have a little boy, you can state you don't want circumcision or you can state whether you want the hep b vaccine or you state who will be attending the birth with you. it's just a good way to give a lot of information succinctly.
i used a birth plan with my hospital birth of my first daughter. it helped have fetal monitoring with only a doptone and no external monitor. that was wonderful for me. the nurse didn't like it (because it was against hospital protocol) but because my dr had signed it the on-call dr honored it and i got what i wanted.
when i had a homebirth with my second child, i didn't use a birth plan because there was not a single thing my midwife would do that i didn't want. i've heard it said that if you need a birth plan, you need a new provider. in other words, find someone who routinely does it your way. you shouldn't have to say pretty please to get what you want. however, where i live, that would mean only homebirth, and some people for various reasons don't choose that.
July 15, 2008 - 9:50pmThis Comment
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