1) Don’t speak to me.

I wanted all communication and any concerns to go via my birth partner, especially during active labour. My job during birth was to focus and breathe. My husband knew our preferences, so he was about to advocate and make decisions on my behalf without interrupting me.

2) No students.

I get that medical students need to learn but I wanted minimal interaction during my birth, I didn’t want extra people unnecessarily coming in and out of my labour room interrupting me for their benefit and not mine.

3) Only speak English around me.

I had two births in Malta and one in Sweden. English in my mother tongue, plus I didn’t want anyone talking about me if I didn’t fully understand what they were saying.

4) No IV preparation.

Always plan for the birth you want. The births I wanted; I didn’t need an IV so I didn’t want to have one “just in case”. That went against my mindset.

5) No coaching or guiding during stage two (pushing part).

I wanted to listen to my body and what my body was telling me to do. Not other people. Other people cannot hear what you feel, what your baby feels. You know the saying “I cannot hear myself think”? I needed and wanted to be able to hear myself.

6) No internal examinations.

I had all three of my babies at the hospital and on arrival, I consented to an internal examination on arrival to the hospital but after that first examination I didn’t want anymore, at all. Or if my waters had broken, I didn’t want ANY at all. Evidence shows that internal examinations don’t actually give much information. Plus, I don’t think a stranger putting their hands in my vagina and birth touching my cervix would have helped me relax, do you?!

I have many more things like:

No lights.
Freedom of movement.
I want to catch the baby.

All my birth plans and requests during the births of my babies were adhered to, with no pressure or pushiness but sometimes that isn’t the case. There are tools you can use to overcome these challenges.

Birth plans can be used as legal documents, so they are important.

And please note, if I or the baby had been at risk during any part of my babies births, the birth plan would have gone put the window – which I actually had on my birth plan (“in light of any medical emergency, we trust the medical team to progress in any way they see fit”).

For a free birth plan template message me and I will send it to you.

Sarah