| Welcome to SeattleBirthNet: Create My Birth plan Childbirth Education and Labor Support for Expectant Families |
Welcome to SeattleBirthNet's interactive, evidence-based birth plan tool. This tool assumes that you are
your own best educator and provides you with an opportunity to make decisions for you and your baby based on
what research shows is the best option.
Why call it a birth plan when you have no way of actually planning your birth?
Birthing is a time when your body and baby work together to bring about life. It is difficult to plan exactly how that will
happen. By creating this birth plan, and clicking on the links to understand what options you have and why you might
or might not want them, you are building your own vocabulary to advocate for yourself at the hospital, and with
nursing staff and doctors. If you are planning a birth center or home birth, it will help you in the event of a transfer,
which, though unpleasant to think of, can occur smoothly with a good plan and good communication. Think of these
as your preferences and then be ready for anything by educating yourself (a doula is also a great resource in the
birthing room!)
What kind of Birth Plan should you bring to the hospital with you?
Unfortunately, I have seen a strange effect of birth plans on nurses at our local hospitals. Instead of looking at your
birth plan and attributing it to a couple who has taken the time to educate themselves thoroughly and then make
decisions based on evidence and personal preference, many nurses attribute a well thought out birth plan to
over-zealousness or a hard-headed women.
The fact is that if you look at your birth plan as if it is the end-all of options you will even consider, you are setting
yourself up: birth is a crazy winding road and we can't see what is coming around the bend. If you choose to be in a
hospital for your birth, then not only can you not see what is coming around the bend, you also can't predict what so
many people's responses will be to what happens.
If you want control over the miriad of options available to you during childbirth, consider a home or birth-center birth
with a midwife. To learn more about the differences in care, click here
The remedy....
Presenting a birth plan that gives them a general picture of what you want is a great way to introduce your educated,
knowledgeable, research-based decision making powers!
What does that actually look like?
You can see a sample to the right.
So why bother with all of the
details?
I would recommend going through all of
your options and making a second part
to your birth plan, which you bring into
your room with you. Set it on the table
and refer to it when needed. Share it
with your nurse after you are settled
and she gets to see what an amazing,
glorious laboring mama you are! Tell
her you did a lot of research and wrote
down more details about your
preferences for your partner or doula
to refer to in case questions come up. If it would be helpful to her, she is welcome to look at them. The most
effective way to get what you want is talk about it along the way. An example would be talking with your doctor ahead
of time about letting the cord pulse. Then close to delivery, your spouse can say, 'hey doc, remember we talked
about letting the cord stop pulsing before you clamp it'. Your doula can prompt you to say these things along the
way as well.
The other option, if it is important to you to get it all down on paper and show them up front, is just to do it in a
concise, one-page format. That looks like this:
When you click 'next' below, you will be
taken to a list of most of the options
you will need to make decisions about
during labor and delivery and parenting
of your newborn. Read through the
explanations. Make informed, educated
decisions.
When you submit your birth plan,
you will receive a word document
like the one you see to your right.
Consider writing a letter like the one
above to put either as your cover
page or to use for your own
reference once you are in labor and
to offer a glance of to your nurse
after she gets to know you a bit.
The lesson we have learned from
the recent trend of nurses to ignore or
even laugh at birth plans is that you always need to be your own best advocate. This means understanding
your choices ahead of time, and bolsters the argument for having a doula with you who can not only provide a lot of
physical and emotional comfort, but also act as your personal dictionary--to let you know what the options are, what
the potential consequences for those options are, what the research shows about those options, and what her
experience has shown her about them.
In the state of Washington, every person has the Right to Refuse Care. If you don't want something they are
offering, and you feel pushed into it, you can tell them you are invoking your Right to Refuse Care and will sign a
document saying so.
your own best educator and provides you with an opportunity to make decisions for you and your baby based on
what research shows is the best option.
Why call it a birth plan when you have no way of actually planning your birth?
Birthing is a time when your body and baby work together to bring about life. It is difficult to plan exactly how that will
happen. By creating this birth plan, and clicking on the links to understand what options you have and why you might
or might not want them, you are building your own vocabulary to advocate for yourself at the hospital, and with
nursing staff and doctors. If you are planning a birth center or home birth, it will help you in the event of a transfer,
which, though unpleasant to think of, can occur smoothly with a good plan and good communication. Think of these
as your preferences and then be ready for anything by educating yourself (a doula is also a great resource in the
birthing room!)
What kind of Birth Plan should you bring to the hospital with you?
Unfortunately, I have seen a strange effect of birth plans on nurses at our local hospitals. Instead of looking at your
birth plan and attributing it to a couple who has taken the time to educate themselves thoroughly and then make
decisions based on evidence and personal preference, many nurses attribute a well thought out birth plan to
over-zealousness or a hard-headed women.
The fact is that if you look at your birth plan as if it is the end-all of options you will even consider, you are setting
yourself up: birth is a crazy winding road and we can't see what is coming around the bend. If you choose to be in a
hospital for your birth, then not only can you not see what is coming around the bend, you also can't predict what so
many people's responses will be to what happens.
If you want control over the miriad of options available to you during childbirth, consider a home or birth-center birth
with a midwife. To learn more about the differences in care, click here
The remedy....
Presenting a birth plan that gives them a general picture of what you want is a great way to introduce your educated,
knowledgeable, research-based decision making powers!
What does that actually look like?
You can see a sample to the right.
So why bother with all of the
details?
I would recommend going through all of
your options and making a second part
to your birth plan, which you bring into
your room with you. Set it on the table
and refer to it when needed. Share it
with your nurse after you are settled
and she gets to see what an amazing,
glorious laboring mama you are! Tell
her you did a lot of research and wrote
down more details about your
preferences for your partner or doula
to refer to in case questions come up. If it would be helpful to her, she is welcome to look at them. The most
effective way to get what you want is talk about it along the way. An example would be talking with your doctor ahead
of time about letting the cord pulse. Then close to delivery, your spouse can say, 'hey doc, remember we talked
about letting the cord stop pulsing before you clamp it'. Your doula can prompt you to say these things along the
way as well.
The other option, if it is important to you to get it all down on paper and show them up front, is just to do it in a
concise, one-page format. That looks like this:
When you click 'next' below, you will be
taken to a list of most of the options
you will need to make decisions about
during labor and delivery and parenting
of your newborn. Read through the
explanations. Make informed, educated
decisions.
When you submit your birth plan,
you will receive a word document
like the one you see to your right.
Consider writing a letter like the one
above to put either as your cover
page or to use for your own
reference once you are in labor and
to offer a glance of to your nurse
after she gets to know you a bit.
The lesson we have learned from
the recent trend of nurses to ignore or
even laugh at birth plans is that you always need to be your own best advocate. This means understanding
your choices ahead of time, and bolsters the argument for having a doula with you who can not only provide a lot of
physical and emotional comfort, but also act as your personal dictionary--to let you know what the options are, what
the potential consequences for those options are, what the research shows about those options, and what her
experience has shown her about them.
In the state of Washington, every person has the Right to Refuse Care. If you don't want something they are
offering, and you feel pushed into it, you can tell them you are invoking your Right to Refuse Care and will sign a
document saying so.
