Do You Need a Birth Plan? Delivery Room Myths

There are more couples that do not have a birthing plan when they arrive to labor and delivery than couple with an established plan.  I think there is a question out there a to whether or not a birth plan needs to be established.  There are many out there that feel like you need to be protected from your doctor and the hospital and a birth plan is the best approach.  I suppose, if you felt like you needed to be protected from your physician and hospital then you should do everything in your power to not deliver with them.

There are many sites out there for you to make your own birth plan and I would say it is a good idea to visit one of these sites and plug in your information so you can see some of the issues that might arise when you go into labor.  You may need to confront issues like, pitocin, epidural, pain meds, episiotomy, internal fetal monitors, cesarean section, and things of that nature.  It would be nice for you to have a potential feeling one way or the other on these interventions so they are not foreign.

Discuss your birthing plan with your provider and make them aware of what you would like to happen in your pregnancy.  The power of intention being laid may make a difference in the outcome of your delivery process and it doesn’t hurt to have the providers intentions set as well.  In a few instances, some couples will present and act like the birth plan is their shield and that the hospital is out to get them.

Let me share a story.

I was on call for  another group of physicians and a patient presented from their office into labor.  She was very adamant about her birth plan and was very direct in her statements towards the provider, hospital, and the nurses.  I could feel the anger in her words by the tone of the letter and I wondered why she was delivering in the hospital when she obviously felt very strongly that the hospital had policies and procedures in place that she was very opposed to; there is a midwifery birthing center her in Tucson.  I found out that her insurnace would not cover her birth at the “birth center” and so she was stuck with us and our ways and she felt the need to be defensive.  What is truly sad here is that her insurnace company would not cover her birth where she wanted to birth, and this needs to change.  The second thing that struck me as that she felt the need to protect herself from us.  Add on top of this that she did not know me because I was covering for her doctor and you had a patient that was very leery of the system.

She progressed through labor well and I visited with her  a couple of times as she labored.  She was surprised when I told her that she could do what she wanted and I was only there to help her if she needed me.  This is truly my policy.  I did ask for her to be flexible and that if I had information for her that I would present it and she could decide what to do.  She delivered in a squat position on the floor and it was the first birth where I delivered a baby like this, practically laying on the floor.  She was very appreciative at my flexibility and the joke was that may muscles were so sore from squatting with her, I don’t think I am very flexible.  She had a second degree laceration and I informed her that it was not bleeding very much and asked if she wanted sutures which she did not, and I did not put them in.

You see, we can work together, and the birth plan can be a road map for your successful birth process.