Planning for a Natural Childbirth

Planning for a natural childbirth is a personal choice and is something that takes time and careful planning on your part to ensure that your caregivers understand your wishes. As you plan for natural childbirth, consider all of your options and think about how each choice will affect your labor. As a mother of three, planning my own natural childbirth was a rewarding experience and I offer these steps to help you plan your own natural childbirth.

Decide who will be present at your birth. While your family may have all good intentions, too many people can sometimes make things a little hectic and take away from the intimacy that you may otherwise feel. You may choose to only have the father and midwife present until you have had time to feed your baby for the first time or just have a few moments alone.

Ensure that the birthing environment is set to your specifications. Many birthing centers and even some hospitals can make adjustments for your birthing experience such as lowering of lights, playing the music of your choice and even certain smells can be accommodated.

Make it very clear to all medical personnel through your birthing plan that you will not be requesting any drugs of any kind during the labor. Obviously, if an emergency arrives drugs may become a requirement, but in any non-emergency case be very clear that you would like to have the opportunity to accept or refuse procedures that require the use of drugs. If a c-section becomes necessary request that if at all possible that that the mother be fully conscious and the father be allowed to stay in the room.

If labor doesn’t progress as fast as your midwife or doctor may like you may wish to request other natural methods be used before using medical treatments such as walking, breast stimulation or other natural methods. You may want to request that no I.V. be put into the mother unless it becomes necessary so that you can easily walk around your room to help your labor progress. Ask your midwife for suggestions to this issue prior to labor to see what she recommends.

Talk with the father to determine what level of participation he would like during the labor. He may wish to stay by your side or even sit behind you to help you with breathing or he may wish to be part of the delivery by “catching” your baby as he or she arrives. Be sure to include this in your birthing plan so your midwife can instruct him when the time comes.

After labor is done, you may wish to request that you have the opportunity to immediately feed the baby. Most evaluations can be done while mom is holding baby unless an emergency comes up.