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Create your personal birth plan

Making a birth plan: what are your wishes regarding the birth?

In a birth plan You can write down your wishes regarding the birth if you would like this. It can help with the preparations for the birth, because you express your expectations to each other, us as midwives and any other healthcare providers.

Writing a birth plan

Before making a birth plan, it is wise to discover together with your partner what you find important: how do you want to be guided, how should you be treated and what are your wishes and ideas? A plan surrounding your birth is intended as a means of communication with each other and with your healthcare providers, so that you understand each other well. This allows better cooperation during the birth and helps to have confidence in each other.

Benefits of a birth plan

Pregnant women and their partners with a birth plan appear to look back better on a birth. Research shows that couples experience childbirth more positively because they have been involved in making decisions by making a plan. Even if medical interventions are required and the birth does not proceed as expected, couples generally look back on childbirth with fondness.

Sometimes you can't make a decision yourself. Always trust your partner and your healthcare providers and remain flexible with regard to the course of your delivery. It is good to always take the unexpected into account.

Discuss your plan

Together with your midwife at Midwives Lelystad, you will discuss the birth plan in advance. For this purpose, we plan a longer appointment between weeks 32 and 35 of pregnancy. Together we will discuss your wishes. Sometimes during this conversation there are additions to the plan or you make some adjustments. In this way we arrive at your 'final' version of the plan together.

Below you will find an extensive birth plan. Fill it in so we can go through it together later.

Make your birth plan below

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Where would you most like to give birth?
If there are no risks to childbirth, all three options are possible. If there is an increased risk of this before your delivery (such as an increased BMI or a lot of blood loss during the previous delivery), you will hear this from us and we will discuss the options available to you.
Who would you like to be present during the birth besides the midwife?
In the case of a non-medical birth, you can choose to bring someone else with you in addition to a partner. Please note that in emergencies, only the partner may stay in the room, even in a home situation.
What is important to you during childbirth?
Who do you want emotional support from?
Consider, for example, whether or not there is humor, thinking out loud by the midwife to include you in what is happening or rather not, telling it like it is or preferably not.
What positions do you like or did you like during contractions?
What positions do you like or did you like during pushing?
Pushing in the supine position causes the sacrum (tailbone) to tilt inwards, giving the baby less space to be born. We will therefore always encourage people not to give birth in the supine position. In some emergency cases it may be necessary to give birth in the supine position, we will always discuss this with you.
How do you want to be supported in your birthing positions?
When you start pushing, we will always ask you to do what your body tells you. After a number of contractions, we check whether the baby is descending nicely while pushing. If this does not happen, we may provide instructions for pushing to help you and the baby.
Would you like to see/experience the birth yourself?
If you want to handle the baby, we will always help you with this. If you enter 'midwife', this means that you do not want to handle the baby yourself, but that we will do this alone.
Measuring progress includes keeping track of dilation during contractions, but also telling you how things are going during pushing. During a first delivery, we measure dilation every few hours, so that we have an idea of how the delivery is progressing. We will do this less often for a second or more birth.
In this region you have the choice of an epidural or remifentanil (pump with a morphine-like substance).
Who do you want with you in the operating room?
As standard, we let the umbilical cord tap out for 3 minutes, so that the last nutrients go to the baby. Only in urgent cases is it necessary to remove the navel immediately, because otherwise we have no room to act. We will always communicate this if necessary.
A lotus birth means that the umbilical cord is only cut when the placenta is born. This is possible if there is sufficient length of the umbilical cord. With a short umbilical cord, it is not possible to deliver the placenta without first cutting the umbilical cord.
We do not routinely administer syntocinon at the birth of the placenta. The only situation in which we administer syntocinon is to prevent extensive blood loss or a retained placenta. In these situations there is a risk that you will have to go to the operating rooms after delivery, unless we give an injection with syntocinon. With this injection we can sometimes prevent you from having to go to the operating rooms.
There is a maximum amount of time to wait until the placenta is born. After this time, research shows that the risks increase if the placenta has not yet been born and we must refer to the hospital. On the other hand, we do have sufficient time (30-45 minutes) for the placenta to be born and we can also take the time to do this (provided there is not too much blood loss).
What do you want to do with the placenta?
How do you prepare for breastfeeding if you want to do so?
If you want to breastfeed, we recommend that you provide a breast pump before the birth. Experience shows that you need the pump more often than not. If you give birth in the evening or night and it is the weekend afterwards, it will be difficult to get a pump. This is not convenient, because breastfeeding is not fully developed in the first few days and the baby sometimes needs additional formula.
What alternatives are you considering to breastfeeding?
If you want video during your birth, you should always ask the midwife and maternity nurse whether they give permission for this. If a midwife agrees to this, filming is only allowed as long as there is no emergency. In emergency situations, the video must be stopped immediately.
Which phases do you want images of?
Think of a previous traumatic experience or experiences that were unpleasant for you the previous time.

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