What's in Your Birth Plan? - Planning Your Home Birth
What To Consider for Natural Home Births
Why do you need a birth plan?
There are many options available to support your home birth experience ranging from a water birth to hypnotherapy in birthing. The idea of a birth plan is to choose your preferred method of giving birth, and also to specify your views on interventions that will be offered to you. While many women do not have the birth that they planned, preparing a birth plan gives you and your partner a starting point when labour kicks in. Also creating a birth plan enables you to discuss all the options with your partner and midwife and confirm what your preferences are. This is important, as your partner may need to speak for you while you are focussed on your labour. Also if your midwife is aware of your birth plan she will also be able to ensure there is a midwife available to support a homebirth and adequately trained if you need assistance with a water birth.
What to put in your birth plan?
This will be different for every person, and you will gain ideas about your ideal birth from antenatal classes and talking to mothers who have been through the process, or even your own experience if this is not your first child. Below is a template for a birth plan that covers the main areas to consider when planning your home birth.
How to put your birth plan together - try this template
The sections below are the common areas to consider when planning your home birth; you may come up with more requirements or may have no preferences on some of the sections below. You can use this as a guide to start your birth plan.
People present You may only want your midwife and your birth partner present, or you may be happy for close relatives and friends to support you. If you specify this then your partner or midwife can tactfully ask people to give you some privacy if required during the birth. Also consider any other children that you have and whether you would like them present and if they would like to witness the birth. Make a contingency plan if you think that it may not be a good idea for them to attend the birth. You may consider it helpful to have a friend or your mother present to help out, especially if you have a birth pool that needs to be filled. A doula, acupuncturist or a hypnotist are also popular for home births. Have the names and numbers of anyone that you would like at the birth available in case someone else needs to call them for you. Pain relief If you have a home birth you can only use natural pain relief methods. Options to help you with your home birth may involve, the use of movement, massage, relaxation, acupuncture, hypnosis, aromatherapy, a TENS machine, or a birth pool. Your midwife may also make gas and air available for you, but remember that she may not arrive until the end of the first stage of labour or the start of the second stage of labour.
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