The Positive Birth Book Visual Birth Plan Cards

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Last but not least for the comfort measures, you may want to add that you’ll be using positive birth affirmations. You might prefer to listen to them or have a look at some birth affirmation cards spread around the room – the choice is yours. Any sexual activity can encourage the earlier onset of the birthing process and prime your body with a flood of the enormously important 'love hormone' oxytocin! Good for:Those looking for a free visual, natural birth planning template. March of dimesPrintable Birth Plan I personally didn’t mind the idea, as long as they kept quiet in the room. However, if you prefer not to have anyone else in the room, feel free to add this point to your natural birth plan to let the staff know so they can respect your wish. This doesn’t mean you can’t have your ideal birth, it just means that sometimes, no matter how much you plan, plans change.

Like I mentioned before, make sure to discuss your preferences with your health care provider first, to make sure that they are happy with it and that it’s safe for you to have the birth you desire. Once the birth plan is finalized and ready, make sure it becomes part of your medical records, so that it will automatically be sent to your hospital or birthing center, and print multiple copies to add to your hospital bag. All of the birth plans on this list are printable! What’s the Difference Between a Birth Plan Template and Birth Plan Generator That said, there are several natural ways to induce labor that are not invasive at all and, usually, the worst that can happen is that they don’t work and you just keep waiting for the signs that labor is going to start soon. So, you might want to give these a try! There is a pretty big caveat I like to say surrounding birth plans—don’t let them be the downfall of your positive birth! A birth plan should be something you think of more as your “birth wishes”. After all, when you laboring, the last thing you will want is someone asking you a bunch of questions that you don’t know the answers to.

So What’s a Natural Mama to Do?

Babies traditionally go to a nursery after birth, so that nurses can monitor them for a period of time and mom can get some rest. However, this practice is slowly disappearing across multiple hospitals across the world. In New Zealand it doesn’t happen at all, no matter where you give birth, and babies are left to bond with their new parents the whole time.

That said, a birth plan is more like a list of “birth preferences”: a list of things that you’d like to have or happen during your birth experience ( before, during and after labor and delivery), or things that you’d prefer to avoid if possible. It doesn’t necessarily mean everything will go according to what’s written in it but, when you are in labor you won’t have time to discuss any of it with the medical team around you. Breast stimulation is especially effective in starting labor at term when it is combined with sexual intercourse. Unless your partner is an abysmally poor lover, this combination is by far the most enjoyable method of induction. " - Ina May Gaskin

The visual birth plan is a great reminder to you and your birth team that you have choices and that you can make decisions together. Aside from the birth preferences for all stages of labor, the visual birth plan can include six helpful questions to be asked in case of emergencies, names and roles of people on your birth team and crucial details about your pregnancy and health.