Birth Plans Without the Pressure: 3 Practical Tips
- Charlotte Watson
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
This blog covers:
Why birth plans are a good idea...
Think about a time in your life when you've done something big, like get married, go on holiday or move house. I’m pretty sure before doing any (or all) of these things that you’ll have researched, looked at your options and planned what is be best for you.
Birth is the same. But sometimes people say things like “there’s no point planning for birth, it’s unpredictable" or "I'm just going to go with the flow". Absolutely birth can be unpredictable and it can evolve and change, but this is even more a reason to consider what you want. Your birth plan, or birth preference's, whatever you want to call it, isn't set in stone, equally a birth plan (that's what I'll call it for this blog) isn’t a tick sheet where you’re aiming for each statement to be met perfectly in order to feel like you had a great birth. You can always change your mind and adapt to evolving situations.
The act of sitting down, to research and think about your options and choices, and work out what is most important to you, is where the power lies.
When creating your birth plan, the act of sitting down, to research, think about your options and choices, and work out what is most important to you, is where the power lies.
The more you know about your options, the more options you have. You are taking control of your decisions, before birth, meaning when the time comes you can feel more relaxed that you have already put in the legwork.
Benefits of writing a birth plan:
You aren’t being a diva, you are helping your Health Care Provider do their job.
By writing a birth plan you are taking the opportunity to:
Think about your ideal birth (Plan A) and what is important to you, AND what’s important to you in alternate birth scenarios - plan B or plan C.
Discuss your plan with your birth partner. This will help them confidently support you and advocate when you need it. This is really important. Birth partners need to be the absolute expert in your birth plan (whilst also understanding that you may completely change your mind, and that's also ok)
Discuss your birth plan with your health care providers. This helps them best support you – you aren’t being a diva, you are helping them do their job. By letting them know what you want you are far more likely to get it.
Birth plan writing tips:
(Download my birth plan at the bottom of this and use it as a guide, if you like)
Tip 1: Write multiple birth plans:
If your birth does evolve away from your plan A, it's often possible for many of your choices to remain at the forefront of your care.
Plan A – your ideal birth, considering this means it's more likely for it to become your reality
Plan C – Caesarean birth, even if the idea of having a caesarean birth is the farthest from your ideal birth, I would always recommend giving a caesarean birth plan some thought. According to 2024-25 UK NHS maternity figures, caesarean births now account for 45% of all births. All birth experiences matter, and if caesarean birth is how you birth your baby, by writing this plan you have considered what is important for you, which is important because you have unique wants and needs.
Plan B – Alternate option – e.g. Induced labour – the NHS 2024-25 figures show an induction rate of 30% - being offered an induction to start labour is a possibility, remember the choice is ALWAYS yours.
By thinking about what is important to you, if your birth does evolve away from your plan A, it's often possible for many of your choices to remain at the forefront of your care.
Tip 2: Make it easy to read:
Your birth plan will ideally give whoever is reading it an easy-to-read guide to what is important to you, being clear and to the point. It doesn’t need to look super fancy. You could use headings or bold text to help, what is important is it is personal to you and makes your wants and needs clear, you can be as specific as you like, it all helps, here are some heading ideas:
About you:
Introduce yourself, this sets the tone for how you’re feeling and the birth you would like. If you have been practicing hypnobirthing it’s a good idea to tell your Health Care Provider to give them a heads up. You can also introduce your birth partner or partners.
Language:
Language matters and words can create physical responses in our bodies.
Sometimes people request to use alternative words or phrases to asses comfort during labour, instead of being asked about pain levels, they might request to be asked about the intensity or sensations instead. If you prefer for contractions to be called waves or surges this is a great place to put this too. It’s completely up to you and how you feel. There is no right or wrong.
Environment:
This can be broken down into two sections,
Where you want to birth your baby: e.g. home, birth centre, labour ward (hospital - obstetric unit), theatre, birth pool, active birth room.
How you want your birth environment to be:
Think about things that can boost your oxytocin, your birth super hormone, which is a shy hormone and thrives when you feel calm, safe and unobserved.
Comfort measures:
Comfort measures you would like, detailing them helps your Health Care Providers best support you during birth. You could also request not to be offered pain relief, stating you will ask if I require any.
Monitoring & Interventions:
You could write whether monitoring and interventions are something you would or wouldn't want to accept. e.g. membrane sweeps, routine vaginal examinations, foetal monitoring... (remember, if you say you do / don't want something and then change your mind this it totally ok)
You could request all questions, in the first instance, be directed to your birth partner to avoid you being disturbed and help you remain in your para-sympathetic nervous system (the system needed for birth to progress) as well as requesting time to consider individual risks and benefits of any interventions before proceeding.
Birth: First & Second stage
Where you want to birth your baby?
Do you want to be active and upright while birthing or laid on your back?
Would you like instinctive or coached pushing?
Who would you like to reveal your babies gender?
Birth: Third stage
Would you like skin-to-skin?
Would you like optimal cord clamping?
How would you like to birth your placenta?
Who would you like to cut the cord?
Care of baby:
Would you like routine checks to wait until the 'golden hour' is over?
Would you like vitamin K for your baby? if yes, would you like vitamin K in injection or oral form?
This list isn’t exhaustive, you don’t have to write about everything, or you can add in other sections that are important to you.
Your birth plan is all about you and what is most important to you and your birth.
My final tip is...
Tip 3: Print multiple copies and make it a birth partner job to hand them to your health care providers.
You'll likely have not met the midwife or doctor who is caring for you during labour and birth, so making it a birth partner responsibility to hand over your birth plan, so you to focus on you and your baby.
I go into much more depth about the science and evidence of birth preparation as well as building your hypnobirthing skills tool kit during my hypnobirthing courses.
I'm a doula and hypnobirthing antenatal teacher, if you'd like to talk about how I can support you during this transformative and transformational time in your life, with nurturing doula support of getting informed with a evidence-based hypnobirthing course, visit the website.
I offer free discovery calls and I'm always happy to chat.
Charlotte x
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