Crack open your coloured pens, your pretty notebook and your laptop and make a start on your birth plan! Laminating is entirely optional
I’m still pretty furious that one of my clients this week was told she wasn’t allowed to write her birth plan yet. Errrr <— my actual face. Birth plans aren’t something that you write in a 10 minute appointment at 36 weeks.
The POWER of a birth plan comes from the knowledge that you and your support crew get from learning and reflecting. Of finding out what the biological norm is and what circumstances might arise that would throw you off that trajectory. Of what interventions you’d be happy to accept and in what circumstances, and which you will avoid like the plague. The piece of paper at the end is just a tiny part of the process; the really important bit is the work that’s gone into being able to write it.
Birth plans, or birth preferences, or birth flow charts (trademark pending ) come under criticism from some people (yes Adam Kay and other misogynistic folk I’m looking at you). Or rather, they’re another tool to mock and throw scorn down at a woman. As one fabulous OB said on Twitter ‘the longer the birth plan the longer caesarean scar I’ll make’. It’s funny how threatened an empowered woman can make some people feel, isn’t it? Because this is what it’s all about. When you learn and grow in confidence in your body’s abilities you start to question the autocratic policies that you’re told you have to abide by. You start to ask how it relates to you and your own unique situation. You start to ask for evidence and transparency of conversation. You start to demand that you’re treated as a person and not a statistic. And boy, does that throw the system into disarray.
Policies and procedures exist to protect hospitals and staff, and are created (often with little evidence) to give a guideline at population-level. But YOUR birth plan is just for you. It’s for YOUR situation, reflecting YOUR needs, YOUR desires, YOUR experiences, YOUR medical history. It’s the piece of paper that says ‘I am mine and my baby’s biggest advocate and I will make the decisions that I believe will keep us healthiest’. There is NOBODY who has more of a vested interest in you and your baby’s wellbeing than you. Nobody.
The biggest tip I give to pregnant people asking about birth plans – apart from booking my classes – is to read, read and read some more. It’s why my post-class emails are so link heavy! The more you read, the more scenarios you come across, the more different views you hear the more able you are to get a feel for what you’d do if that scenario happens to you in labour. Because with the best will in the world we can’t predict what’s going to happen to you on the day. But we CAN predict your reaction to it.
The second tip is to make sure your support crew know what you want. Don’t keep it secret. Get your birth partners on board, make sure they understand. Because in labour they’ll be advocating on your behalf.
A nice way of creating the final piece is a visual reminder for you and your team is the Positive Birth Movement pictures, available for free download here: http://www.pinterandmartin.com/vbp
