Creating a birth plan

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What is a birth plan?


A birth plan is a list of what you want during labor, delivery and postpartum. It is helpful for you to sit down and decide on what decisions you want made in advance so you are not having to make spur of the moment decisions in between contractions and no details will be forgotten.  During my first pregnancy, I had so much to learn and found it useful just to read through the options that my doctor never told me about. I became very educated by just researching what those options meant!


Free birth plan template.


This one is really good from Earth Mama Angel Baby: http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/free-birth-plan


Should I create a birth plan?

During my first pregnancy, my doula had me review all the birthing options. She was adamant about me not being too set on a fixed "birth plan" because she wanted me to be flexible and not get too disappointed if my dream birth did not happen. Since my doula was at my side the entire time, I felt like she was my living birth plan and it was fine that I did not have one in writing.

With my second pregnancy, I darn well knew what I wanted and wanted everyone to know it!  Plus I had no doula so I had to be my own advocate at the hospital. Thankfully my labor was super speedy and my midwife was incredibly respectful of making my birth plan work 100%.

Now with my third pregnancy, I am again going to have a birth plan to let everyone at the hospital know what I want and to remind my midwife since I am now with a practice of midwives versus a single midwife.