38 Weeks Pregnant - The Birth Plan

Holy Molyyyyy it's been a long time since I have written ANY of my thoughts on here. 2020 was going to be MY YEAR and then things went a little crazy for all of us. I had no motivation to share my thoughts and let this blog go. But! I have returned to share some things about this pregnancy, in hopes that it can help others.

I really had NO intention of sharing my birth plan. I know as mothers we can all be a little judgmental on things that we feel should and shouldn't happen during the birthing process. But, after speaking privately with a few different soon to be first time mommas- I decided to share based on my research & experience the first time around. There were things I would of loved to change about my first birthing experience and things I never thought of going into that experience.

I would like to start this conversation by saying that I have spoken with a few labor and delivery nurses while creating my birth plan. As a nurse, I know there can be things that irritate nurses- so I tried to compose my birth plan in the least irritating manor so that we would start my birthing experience on the right foot. If you are a nurse, I think you know what I mean. So here is what the labor and delivery nurses I talked to like to see....

-They don't want pages of a birth plan. They would love if it was on one page, had the least amount of words & straight to the point.

-They don't mind reading your wishes, but want you to be open to the plans changing if something happens during labor that could change the plans.

The Birth Plan Explained

Also.. a lot of things on my birth plan are self explanatory but I'll take a minute to go over a few of them. Feel free to message me with any questions or thoughts and I would love to talk more!

- No IV fluids unless needed for safety of baby (or with pain medication). You may think, who cares about IV fluids? They aren't harmful. But in fact, the more IV fluids you get during labor, the more fluid weight the baby can pack on during labor, which makes them have huge weight losses after birth. If you have ever had a newborn, you know how much medical staff hate when babies lose weight- so I'm trying to prevent that from happening this time.

- Warm compresses during pushing. Can help with pain relief & preventing tearing.

- Immediate skin to skin for 1 hour after delivery. The "golden hour". Such an important time for you and your baby to bond and start the breast feeding process before any interventions are done "to the baby". Nurses should be able to do their assessments of baby while on your chest & things like weight can wait until after this bonding time. I am so thankful that my hospital has this policy already. But I include it just in case something has changed since my last birth. https://www.scarymommy.com/golden-hour-after-birth/

- Delayed Cord Clamping. SO SO SO important to let your baby get all of the blood volume they are supposed to obtain & helps with their iron levels (why are we cutting the cord and then giving these babies synthetic iron???) Here is a great article on DCC. https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/labor-and-birth/delayed-cord-clamping-26005/ I will say that this article says that DCC is good for 30 seconds- 5 minutes. But in all my research, OPTIMAL cord clamping is until the cord is white and not pulsating anymore, which can take around 30-45 minutes. We had DCC with Stella, but I think it was for 5 minutes. I would like to go longer this time.

- Do not remove vernix from baby. There are SO many benefits to leaving the vernix on the baby. Temperature regulation, moisturizes their skin, helps boost the baby's microbiome through skin absorption of flora. It is said that most benefits occur when the vernix is left for at least 24 hours. So I do not want nurses "rubbing it off at labor" or bathing the baby without my permission. We waited to bathe Stella for...maybe 12 hours. But now, especially with no visitors due to COVID, I think we will do the first bath right before we leave or when we get home. https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/vernix-caseosa#Should-you-delay-your-babys-first-bath?

- Cooler for placenta. We are taking a cooler for my placenta because I won a free placenta encapsulation. I never thought of doing this with Stella, but I had TERRIBLE postpartum anxiety and some depression last time and this has been said to help. So I am down to give it a try! The ladies at Lancaster Placenta have been such an amazing resource & I highly suggest you check it out. https://www.lancasterplacentaco.com/the-benefits

- No Pitocin. A lot of soon to be moms know that Pitocin is used during inductions to start birth, but not many know that hospitals give after labor to help contract the uterus to deliver the placenta. As someone who would like the least amount of synthetic intervention, I am hoping to avoid the use of Pitocin after birth. One of the labor and delivery nurses I spoke with said that per hospital policy, they give Pitocin to every woman after labor. So I will talk more with them when the time comes. http://houndhill.com/2014/01/17/postpartum-pit-the-shot-in-the-dark/

- No Vitamin K shot. I am just going to leave this BEAUTIFULLY written article hear on Vitamin K administration at delivery. Fully researched and wonderfully written. We will not be using the vitamin K shot because it is synthetic Vitamin K and filled with preservatives. I got the oral alternative. https://www.organichousewife.com/2016/02/newborn-oral-vitamin-k/

- No Hep B Vax. If mom or caregivers of infant do not have Hepatitis B infection, I do not see the benefit to vaccinating a newborn for Hep B. Main causes of Hep B infection are unprotected sex, sharing drug needles, & sharing bodily fluids. So as long as my baby does not do any of those things with a person who has Hep B. I think we will be good. My husband and I have researched vaccinations very thoroughly and we have decided on vaccine administrations that are right for our family that are a private and personal choice. But, I will say that we do not vaccinate in the hospital for Hep B. I HIGHLY recommend this book to any parent who asks me about vaccines. Dr. Paul Thomas is an experienced pediatrician for over 20 years and just gives the pros/cons to each individual vaccination so you can make your own decisions. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-vaccine-friendly-plan-paul-thomas-md/1123047472;jsessionid=E1AAFFD990EB698DFC851814975E2BD1.prodny_store02-atgap10?ean=9781101884225

As much as I do not want to have a C section, it is SO important that you make a birth plan for both scenarios. Same interventions here with a few minor changes because its a c-section.

- Vaginal Seeding. Because babies born by c-section do not go through the vaginal tract, they miss out on the flora needed to create their microbiome in their gut. This has been talked about as a way to help introduce that good bacteria. It still is being researched, but in my opinion- makes perfect sense. Now, I completed this birth plan before finding out that I was GBS positive. So if I didn't get my two rounds of IV antibiotics- I would not ask for this. But, if I received my 2 rounds of antibiotics, I would want to have a conversation with my doctor about doing vaginal seeding, since its no different than delivering after antibiotic administration (which is considered safe). https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/c-section-seeding

-Doula present. My doula who was ESSENTIAL to me during the birth of Stella said that I should request her during c-section if I wanted extra support. In my opinion, there is never TOO much support so I definitely want her in there.

I know it was long, but I wanted to share my thoughts if it would help any other mommas out there when they create their birth plan. There are so many women pregnant right now, I feel such a kinship with all of you. It's so important when we all share our research and ideas to empower us to advocate for ourselves and our babies. If you ever want to talk more about any of these topics- feel free to comment here or message me on Facebook/IG.

-Emily