Notes from Your Nurse: What About Birth Plans?
“Notes from Your Nurse” is a blog series from adora birth + wellness to help you get acquainted with your Calgary labor and delivery team before you arrive at the hospital. Learn more about logistics, patient management, and mom judgement (note: it’s not happening as often as you think) from a real, local, anonymous labor and delivery nurse.
What does your nurse think when you hand her a copy of your birth plan (printed…laminated…40 pages long…in a binder…!)
“Seriously though, we see them all!”
Some birth plans that we see come straight from the internet and were written for someone else or a completely different situation - from an American hospital, or with processes or scenarios that don’t apply to you or to Calgary in general. Some plans are very reasonable and request things that are the standard of care anyways (such as delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin contact).
Doing some reading before birth is strongly encouraged. Please come in and have an idea of what you want and discuss it with your nurse.
Be open to having me tell you why we might recommend something that you say you do not want; you can still decline it after we confirm your understanding of the information. For example, when you say you do not want continuous fetal monitoring and we are recommending it, I need to make sure I have explained why we are recommending it and know that you understand. Then we can come up with a fetal monitoring plan that works for both of us.
Also episiotomies are often a point on birth plans - patients requesting that they not have one performed. You should know that episiotomies are not “standard care” or a routine procedure; nobody wants one and doctors do not want to do them. Rather, they are a last resort to deliver baby if it is in distress or to prevent a tear going through your rectum.