Birth plans are useless!

Birth plans are useless! I hear them say. 'Them' being some health professionals. The apprehension & negativity is then projected onto those whose births didn't go as they had hoped.

Hear me out though. Birth plans (or birth preferences as I like to call them) are a way of you understanding your options with certain aspects of your care. Writing your birth preferences is not a case of writing a rigid list of things that must happen at all costs; its simply a way of listing what you feel would help you to achieve a positive experience.

To write a birth plan, you need to have done some research on birth so if anything, it helps you to inform yourself on all eventualities. It also helps the care provider know what you're hoping for - so that they can assist in facilitating your wishes. It's helpful if they read it!

You may list preferences about pain relief, optimal cord clamping, who cuts the cord, whether you want to be told the sex or see for yourself, fetal monitoring, giving birth in water, thoughts on episiotomy and much more.

Birth preferences are also a great way for a birth partner to advocate for you if need be. I don't believe writing your preferences down sets you up for failure if not everything you hope for happens.

I thought I would just 'wing it' with my first baby so never wrote anything. I didn't have a clue what was going on and just said yes to every suggestion and intervention that was thrown my way.

With my 2nd pregnancy, I wrote my preferences for a vaginal birth, but also in event of a caesarean (I had twins via casearean in the end), so was empowered throughout. My 4th and 5th babies also had my preferences written down - I was keen on having them vaginally, with me being left to get on with it with as little interferance as possible and that's what happened. I did understand that there's always a very small chance of there being an adverse and unexpecged event, but I filled myself with knowledge (being a midwife helped) to increase my chances of having the birth I hope for.

Remember: The power of writing a birth plan isn't actually the plan, it's the process of becoming informed and empowered about all of your options.