Birth Plan

A List of things that went according to my birth plan:

    ü  Had a baby

             But in all seriousness, my friends, family, and blogs I obsessively read all offered the same advice: don't stress over your birth plan because nothing about birth goes according to plan. Did I listen?

    Nope.

             I spent hours writing my birth plan, reading other people's birth plans, going back and changing my mind about things on my birth plan...for months. Then the time came to head to the hospital, and in my bag (a bag which had been packed for weeks according to my carefully planned hospital bag checklist) was my birth plan. A piece of paper I poured hours of worry and hope into..... and it never left my duffle bag. 

            Yes the doctors and nurses did ask me about a lot of the things on the list and what our preferences were, such as the eye goop (erythromycin or tetracycline- both antibiotics) or Vitamin K shot, but as far as plans go, it was the least successfully followed plan I ever had. But I still ended up at the same finish line, with a healthy beautiful baby girl in my arms. So really there's nothing to complain about I am beyond lucky.

           When writing my birth plan I scoured the web for ideas, information, other people's plans, and there was a LOT of material out there, I'm not here to give you the low down on when you should cord clamp or if placental encapsulation is right for you. I'm here to tell you that you should make the right choices for you and your family, and then understand that when people tell you things won't go according to plan, BELIEVE THEM. That doesn't mean you shouldn't write a birth plan, not at all. I am really glad I did, it gave me time to do so much research into all aspects of birth and postpartum recovery, and to think about how I would want things to play out if I had a choice. It really helped me imagine the experience and make the unknown not seem so scary. 

           So, what was on my birth plan you ask? What? You didn't ask? Well I will tell you anyways. 

      The first thing I did was call it "Birth Preferences"- which helped me accept that this wasn't the type of plan that you can follow from start to finish, it was a list of things that I would "prefer" if the option is available to me- and in some cases it was and some it wasn't.

      

            I took the liberty of highlighting in yellow the things that DID go according to my plan...as you can see there isn't a lot of yellow in the labor section but in the other sections things were a little more according to our preferences.

       

        

      Here is a list of other sites/blogs that I found especially helpful when writing my birth plan, maybe they will help you.

     10 Decisions for Parents of Newborns

     Scary Mommy Blog's Birth Plan

     The Art of Making a Baby's birth plan

     Homemaker Chic's birth plan

     Birth Plan Checklist

      Did you write a birth plan? Did your birth end up going according to your plan? Are you in the process of writing your plan now?