Time to Write the Birth Plan
I am now 35 weeks pregnant with my fourth child. Even though this is the fourth time around this whole experience, (and my youngest is only three) I have been shocked at how much I have forgotten. So to brush back up on all things baby, I decided to sign up for those week-by-week pregnancy emails that various parenting sites will send out.
And this week, my trusty 35 week newsletter told me that it's time to write my Birth Plan. I dutifully clicked on all the links that promised to help me write the ultimate Plan. I started checking off boxes (no, I don't really need the birthing ball, yes, I want my husband to take pictures). But once I was done and neatly formatted into a personalized PDF, it was Six. Pages. Long. Yeah, I don't think the nurses or my doctor would really be interested in reading a thesis while trying to hook the monitors up to my belly.
Now, I have written birth plans in the past (especially for my first) to be sure the big, bad hospital wouldn't ruin my entire birth experience. But somewhere during the pregnancy and birth of my last child I realized that most of what I had written in my birth plan was already hospital policy. What can I say, maybe I have good taste in hospitals.
So this time around, I'm doing things differently. If I'm going to write a birth plan, I might as well shoot for what I really want.
My Birth Plan
Name: Amy, mommy of three, soon-to-be four
Due date: June 3 but really later since my three older kids were at least nine days late and up to eleven days late so let's just say July 1 to be safe
Obstetrician: Local group practice, two of whom have little to no bedside manner, two others who are great, and the fifth who I'm ready to sign up to be her new BFF
Birth Coach: Yeah, that would be the hubs.
Other Support Staff: An epidural. Wait, that goes later on...
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