What did you change from one birth plan to the next?

[Jennifer13]

Next birth plan will be the same (it's mostly for in case of transfer) but I'm going to add some post-birth stuff, especially about the check for tears. I may even refuse that if I feel like I did this time, since I had no tearing.

I'll also put something in about expected speed of active labour.

[Sagres]

I didn't have anything I would call a plan, but I did have brief notes about stuff like I wanted to exhaust each pain relief option before trying the next, wanting to get in the bath, DH announcing the gender etc. that kind of stuff. A lot of the stuff I see in birth plans about skin-on-skin asap, BFing asap, and those types of things are just standard procedure with the midwives at my hospital so no need to document that. Like LuluHB says my ob and I had discussions about my hopes for the birth and she got where I was coming from and I trusted that would continue in the delivery room (and it did).

Second time around it was very much the same with a couple exceptions - saying no labouring on my back (pushing on my back fine, labour HELL no) and mostly just a few cautionary notes about the labour being quick and the midwives needing to be ready for a quickie - us being caught of guard with the pace of things first time around caused us some issues.

So pretty similar ideas going in, pretty different outcomes but that's babies for you!

[luna moth]

This is brilliant. Thanks everyone.

I'm pretty sure, then, that I can go in the same as I did last time. I didn't want to blindly do so just because it worked last time, but I think I have all bases covered. Including support personas, which is a really good point.

[HotI]

You will have your DD to plan for too this time, where will she go and when, when and how will she meet the new little person, do you have extra support in the early days for you as a family (either care for your daughter or help with meals etc so you can spend time with both kids). I found the freezer was my friend even more 2nd time around.

[kateo]

I wanted things to be almost totally different 2nd time around.
First time I actively avoided induction (This was very stupid), 2nd time lined up for induction 2 weeks early.
1st time tried to labour without gas or drugsbut ended up using them, 2nd time was willing to use gas but no other drugs.
1st time asked for a CS but ended up with an induction VB. 2nd time didn't want CS but ended up with one because the induction didn't work out.
I was supposed to hve skin on skin 2nd time (this didn't happen 1st time) and it didn;t happen because of emergency CS and baby needing oxygen.
The outcome was totally different 2nd time, I got a breathing baby.

[~clover~]

My first, I was only 18. So other than telling them I wanted it as natural as possible, I really had no idea. I'm still thankful it went as well as it did considering! They were talking about inductions & a c/s.

My second I was more prepared having been there before. This time I had better mw's who encouraged me to be active. I also waited til my contractions were 5 minutes apart before heading to the hospital, rather than going straight in. My fave birth out of all 4 of them. I handled it so well!

Third I had mecconium staining, so I was kind of expecting it to go haywire. I was trying to let go of all my plans, because I didn't know what to expect.

Fourth. Active labour, hands off middie, no internals & delayed cord clamping. Ended up having 2 internals, which I needed. The second one the mw felt swelling on my cervix, so it kind of woke me up to what I was doing (posterior baby, severe back pain, thought pushing would help ) I refocussed & got moving.

#4 was the only one I actually asked for specifics & had them noted on the hospital system. Its a midwife run labour ward thats only open when someone is admitted for birth. If i could I'd tell everyone to go there for their babies. There were no questions about what I wanted, when I booked in or in labour. Only thing they have is a BMI limit, which they think is unfair themselves. They will take somene over that limit in an emergency though They did when I was there, but the poor womans BP skyrocketed & they had to transfer her.

[luna moth]

You will have your DD to plan for too this time, where will she go and when, when and how will she meet the new little person, do you have extra support in the early days for you as a family (either care for your daughter or help with meals etc so you can spend time with both kids). I found the freezer was my friend even more 2nd time around.

Thanks, that's a good point. It's all covered as my mum will be here for the whole month of November, and, more importantly, my in-laws won't!