In my reading I discovered the concept of a birth plan. I always thought your water broke you rushed the the hospital after calling your doctor and waited until you were fully dilated to begin to push. Never in mind did I think you had to pre-plan all this. Well after reading numerous magazines on pregnancy I've come to realize having a simple, clear statement of your preferences surrounding the birth of your baby is vital to your sanity.
I will begin my birth plan list as my pregnancy progresses. So far I have 12 to include on this list. There are:
- I want my husband, parents, and mother-in-law in the birthing room with me. {I'm uncertain if that's too many people, but we'll see}
- Dimmed lights and some Jill Scott needs to be playing. {We're going to make it an iPod party. My Daddy already has the speakers.}
- Daddy has to double as the camera man. {Yes I want pictures!}
- I want to be upright (squatting) to delivery our baby.
- Would love to have a doula to massage all the right places during delivery.
- As far a pain management, I have a pretty high threshold for it so I am going to try my best to hold off on pain medicine/an epidural.
- My mother will act as liaison between medical staff and my family. {She has the nursing degree.}
- I want to immediately nurse and hold my baby ASAP.
- Circumcision if its a boy.
- I want to delay the clamping of the umbilical cord for as long as possible. {Got to give my baby all the necessary advantages.}
- Saving cord blood is still up in the air. {It's going to come down to cost . . . maybe I'll put it on my registry.}
- I want my newborn to room with me during our hospital stay.
Dag my list is 12 items already. I'll try my best to keep it under 30, don't want to scare anyone.
