Birth Plan

A couple of weeks ago I told you I would share with you my birth plan for this baby.  Prior to being pregnant, I had never heard of such a thing.  I thought having a baby was pretty straight forward.  However, after attending 3 birthing classes and talking to several "been there, done that" mom's I realize this is not the case.  There are a multitude of options when it comes to your baby entering the world.  Your birth plan can contain almost anything you want.  You could almost pretend to have a medical degree, and believe me, some women have! 

But back to my birth plan.  I am a fairly traditional girl, I'm planning on having her at Baptist Hospital and letting my OB deliver her.  I think it's pretty clear at that this point that we love our OB, and I am going to trust him and his recommendations for most (all) medical decisions.  After all, he's delivered hundreds of babies and I've delivered none.  We've learned a ton of stuff in our birthing class and feel like we're informed of our options and what could happen, so I don't think there will be anything too scary or out there that we haven't considered, or been forced into facing.  (Believe me, our last class was intense enough with all the things that could happen... yike-et-y yikes yikes!!!)  Of course, (this goes without saying) I'm hoping for a smooth uncomplicated delivery.

Most of the things that are important enough for me to put down on paper (yes your birthing plan should be on paper, 1 page or less typed and you should bring several copies with you to the hospital in case a shift change during your delivery, FYI) have to do with after delivery.  I've done a lot of research (shocker I know!) and I have some specific requests for after she's born.  So here are my requests:

• As long as my baby is healthy, I would like my baby placed skin to skin on my abdomen with a warm blanket over us.
• Please delay all essential routine procedures on my baby until after the bonding and nursing period
• If the baby needs immediate medical attention, I would like my partner to stay with the baby
• Please allow my partner and I (1) hour bonding time before guests can visit
• My baby is to be exclusively nursed
• DO NOT offer my baby any of the following without my consent:
• Formula
• Pacifiers
• Any artificial nipples
• Sugar water
• Anything to soothe or feed other than myself

While this may seem a little strange to some of you out there in blog reader land, there are reason as to why these things are important to me.  There have been numerous studies done show the benefits of holding your baby against your skin as soon as she's born.  But beyond those, I think birth is also traumatic for my little one.  I want to be able to bring a sense of calm back into her little world.  I've taken care of her for the past 9 1/2 months, I want to her to know I'm still there to keep her warm and make her feel safe.  Some of the stuff they do to your baby can wait until things have calmed down a bit.

The other bullet points about nursing are important to me because I want to give myself the best shot at being successful.  It can be stressful enough learning how to feed your baby, that I don't want to confuse her by shoving a bunch of different things in her mouth.  By instinct, a baby knows how to nurse, however mom's don't.  It's a learning process, or can be, and I want to be successful, so I'm doing what I can to make that happen.

I do have a few other specific things on our plan that I'll go ahead and share.  I realize this a boring post, but if your like me, you want to know everything... So here they are:

• Upon arrival at the hospital, I want to have my partner with me at all times
• Please keep the door shut while I'm in labor
• I DO NOT want a mirror or video of any sort during delivery (delivery is gross! The moment your child enters the world is beautiful, don't get me wrong.  But before that, it's not pretty)
• If a C-Section becomes neccissary, please show me my baby immediately after she's born
• I prefer to have a hand free to touch my baby
• If the baby need medical attention, I prefer my partner to stay with the baby
• If the baby is healthy I would like my partner to be the baby's constant source of attention until I am free to bond with her (i.e. holding, skin to skin, etc.)

So there you go, that's our birth plan in a nutshell.  Nothing to fancy or complicated.  In fact, I believe a lot of it is stuff they do automatically anyway now a days, but it doesn't hurt to put it out there that these things are important to me.  After all, how will they know if I don't tell them ;-)

(And yes, today I like typing with (parenthesis))