04/14/2022
Birth Preferences are important. Period.
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Birth plans get such a bad rep, and there’s a few reasons why.
☝🏻One reason is that birth is SO unpredictable—anyone who has given birth, been around birth, worked with birth, or helped their loved ones through the processing of birth, knows that it hardly ever goes to ‘plan’. 🌀
✌🏻Another reason is the fight for power in the birth space. I’ve seen nurses that have been handed a birth plan and roll their eyes immediately. Obstetricians and midwives have been handed birth plans and said “well, at the end of the day what matters is a healthy you and baby,” or, “we already do all of this, no need for a plan”. If anyone is unreceptive to you knowing your options and having opinions, they are unreceptive to your power in the birth space. Period. They value their knowledge more than your bodily autonomy. And that’s just a no go.
🌟Both of these reasons don’t make the process of making a birth plan pointless—in fact, they only make the making of a birth plan even more important 🌟
A good birth plan is ideally 1 page, includes contact information for your care team (partner(s) & family), your baby’s name, your preferences for newborn exams/care and after delivery, and has your preferences for all forms of birth: vaginal/pelvic , induced vaginal/pelvic , and cesarean. That way, no matter how birth unfolds, you know your options, your team knows what’s important to you, and it is easily communicated with everyone who should know. 🍇
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Birth preferences (if you’d still rather not use the word ‘plan’) are important to feel informed and establish your needs with your providers, partners, doulas, and others, *because* of (not in spite of) the fact that birth is unpredictable.
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If we are working together for birth doula support, we will build one together. But, if we aren’t, and you would like to have 1:1 mentorship in building one, you can schedule a Birth Planning Session🌟
~link in bio~
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📸: Christin Hume
