Birth Preferences

Last night in our birth class we went over birth plans and discussed some things we may or may not want to include in them. Adam and I had already talked and thought about this so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted but it was good to get an idea of how to organize the birth plan.

Once we create our list of birth preferences (i.e. - a birth plan), we will discuss it with our doctor this week. When she approves of everything there, we'll make a copy for our file and then we'll bring a copy (along with some goodies) with us to the hospital for the nurses.

Our instructors recommended dividing it up into Labor, Delivery and Postpartum and using bullets instead of paragraphs. We will also start it out with a brief statement (saying who we are/this is our first baby/etc) and finish it with a big "Thank You!"

We haven't written the plan yet and I won't go into all of our preferences but here are our four big sticking points:
1) We want intermittent monitoring
2) We want freedom to move about during labor
3) We want to deliver in the position(s) of our choosing (except for squatting on the floor which my OB has already said she cannot do and which I don't see myself doing anyway)
4) We want the baby to be placed on my chest immediately following delivery

All of this of course comes with the caveat that everything is okay with the baby and myself. If anything goes wrong at any point, we obviously will put aside our preferences for safety's sake.

Honestly, if I can get these four things I will feel that I had the birth experience I wanted.

I really think it is crazy that this is even necessary though. I don't think it should be a battle to get what I want. And, in all honesty, I don't think it will be. Although I would rather have had a midwife, I think our OB is going to be pretty good. It is obvious she is not used to med-free/natural/intervention-free births but she seems open to them and I think that talking about all of this beforehand is going to be really helpful. And there are some things I'm still unsure about like whether or not I want someone to "coach" me when I push.

One thing I'm pretty sure about: I have no desire to watch the whole thing in a mirror. I realize this may change but, at the moment, I think it must be like watching a pot of water boil.

But grosser.