BirthPlan for Home Births???

[naturalbirther]

I have my first homebirth mama whose EDD is 1/1/08 Thing is, I was looking over my birthplan template today and it's very much structured for a hospital birth (HB's are rare...we live in a medical-college town) What can you suggest for a homebirth birthplan? I know some of you are going to tell me you don't you use them, but she really wants one and they are helpful to me in supporting moms
TIA :not worthy
Ash

[DoulaCBE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naturalbirther I have my first homebirth mama whose EDD is 1/1/08 Thing is, I was looking over my birthplan template today and it's very much structured for a hospital birth (HB's are rare...we live in a medical-college town) What can you suggest for a homebirth birthplan? I know some of you are going to tell me you don't you use them, but she really wants one and they are helpful to me in supporting moms TIA :not worthy Ash

While I don't really see much need for a homebirth birth plan, because of the dept of a relationship with ones homebirth midwife, I would encourage a homebirthing client to still create a birth plan for a hospital birth and for a cesarean, in case of a transport or unexpected turn in the course of her labor.

If you want to gear a birth plan towards homebirth then it'd make sense to focus on roles, responsibilities, environment and comfort measures, places she prefers to labor, etc.

[betterbirths]

I think that a birth plan is needed even for a home birth. Mothers can convey their wishes both for themselves and for the care of the newborn. they can also put in it what to do in case of transport to the hospital. Here is a good article on the subject.

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/plan.htm

[DoulaMorgan]

First off, she most definitely needs to write an "in case of transfer" birth plan because she is not going to have a relationship with the hospital's doctors/nurses/etc.

After that, I think things like, lighting, specific music, foods, clothes she wants worn, where and how she'd like to push (in her bed, on the floor in a squat, etc) are good to mention as well. I'd encourage her to write it with much less "clinical" language, and more of her "ideal" birth. I've even seen it done where the mom writes out her dream birth in the form of a birth story BEFORE the baby is born. Then the MW, nurse, doula, etc know what the client is pushing for. They can do their best to help her achieve that dream birth.

HTH!

[ctowndoula]

For the "transfer birth plan" I would have her keep in mind that she is probably transfering for a complication...so "No electronic fetal monitoring (doppler only)" might be out the window. Not that things like this won't be possible at all, but less likely.

My home birth plan focused on the roles that I saw people playing; midwives got to sit and knit unless needed, doulas do labor support, someone there for my kids, etc. I even made sure to lay out who was expected to answer my phone or hold the birth space by being the gate keeper at the door. But I had two doulas, two midwives, my dh, my kids, someone for my kids, and at one birth an apprentice. LOL Full house!

[JessicaE]

I went with a more narrative birth plan, with a paragraph each on my hopes for first stage, second stage, and baby care. I also listed who would be there and what their role would be, and our wishes regarding our older son.

I would never recommend paragraphs for a hospital mom (would never get read), but it seemed to really fit for our home birth.

Here's what I said about transfer:

Hospital: In the unlikely event that we need to be transferred to the hospital, our choice is XXX Hospital. Although a transfer would likely indicate a medical problem, we'd appreciate every effort to ensure that the experience is still as normal and natural as possible, with full informed consent and one of us staying with the baby at ALL TIMES.

I didn't feel like we could say much more than that, since a transfer would mean a very unexpected situation.

[naturalbirther]

Thank you all so much for your suggestions! HAving read what you have told me makes me feel that instead of my normal template approach that I should encourage this mama to makea list of what is important to her regarding her birth and transfer info so that she can then write it on her own apart from our meeting to make it more personal and something that she can keep in a baby book or scrap book.


This was very helpful! Thank you! I'm really looking forward to this mama's birth! It's going to be an HBAC Her midwife also has amazing stats....over 3,000 births with only 2 tranfers, one of which was b/c the mama lost her nerve and suddenly decided to deliver in a hospital instead!