Birth plans?
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You dont necessarily need a written birth plan and your midwife will make one with you while youre in labour if you havent already thought it through. Things to consider/discuss - - pain relief (unmedicated, gas & air, pethadine, epidural) - delayed cord clamping - fetal scalp monitoring - who cuts babies cord - who will be with you - what circumstances can the birth plan be changed Remember your labour might not go to plan and dont feel guilty if it doesnt go how you expected. Just remember to speak up for yourself and if you feel you need more/less interventions say so. And this can go both ways it could go way easier than you expected and you didnt need a certain medication ect. As long as you and baby make it safely is the most important thing xx
Doing it at 34 weeks with my midwife. I’m having an elective c section though so only so much I can add to it as obviously it’s a set way of doing things anyway. For my first mine was preferably water birth, dim lights, calming music, gas and air, immediate skin to skin with delayed cord clamping, no intervention unless absolutely necessary and no epidural unless absolutely necessary…it ended in emergency c section before I even had chance to do anything 😂
I read a book about having 3 birth plans (if your first preference is for a low intervention birth), so that if things don’t go the way you hope, your wishes for alternatives are already there and you can feel like you still have some autonomy over the decision making. E.g… Plan A - a midwife led unit or home birth with details of preferences like birth pool etc Plan B - for if you end up in a hospital delivery suite with preferences re the different medications available, monitoring and changing the environment with lighting etc Plan C-section - if a c section is necessary you can still make requests about music playing, if you want the curtain to be lowered at the time baby comes out etc
I started in the badger app. Although I know I will have missed so much stuff. There is also an nhs one you can download and the positive birth company have one for free - although for that one I feel like you need to have read the book / done the course.