Hi,

I'm guessing this is a hospital birth? The reason I ask is that I think a Birth Plan (or "Preferences") depends on the birthing environment. A homebirth Plan would look different to a VBAC in a hospital Plan.

Tips I was given for my Birth Preferences:

Don't tell the MWs or Ob how to suck eggs. This is where the birthing environment is important. Telling a Birth Centre that you don't want an epidural is like telling the MWs to suck eggs - they already know that if you're in a BC, and by writing it in your BP you're just wasting space, and time. I wrote in my BP that I didn't want any visitors during labour - the BC thought I was telling them how to suck eggs because they wouldn't have allowed any visitors in anyway (but they'd never met my mother...)

Keep your BP to one or two pages. No more. My Doula emailed me a 10-page document as a draft BP, but it was to give me an idea of what I might like to include - everything else was deleted. You think the MWs/Ob have time to read more than 2 pages? They don't, especially if you're in established labour while they're reading it.

I also don't see why music/aromatherapy/lighting should be in your BP. The MWs don't care what the place smells like when you're birthing. Your Doula, and your DH might care though - I would have thought these are things you can talk about with them beforehand. And maybe you could have a "Labour Plan" for the Doula, and the BP for the hospital? Keep all the medical/birth choice stuff for the BP, and all the atmosphere stuff for the Doula/your DH. If your MWs are too busy reading about what essential oils you want burning in the room, they might miss the bits about episiotomies, pain-relief, etc, that you want/don't want.

ALSO, remember that at the hospital it's often expected that you consent until you tell them otherwise. For example, it's almost "expected" that you'll be given a VE upon arrival at the hospital - so if you don't want it, state it in your BP. Make them justify to you why it should be. A big one for me was that I didn't want to be offered pain relief - I knew what was available, I didn't need it offered every 5 minutes (which would have made me feel like I was failing).

You can see my BP in the "Share your Birth Intentions" thread, which for some reason I can't link back to.

GL.