MY BIRTH PLAN
Just surrender to the process...
It is good to have a birth plan prepared beforehand to make sure everyone is on the same page.
As we know, things don't always go according to the plan but at least we can express what is important to us.
All the wishes I expressed before my birth were respected.
Actually, the only thing that didn't go as planned was water birth. I thought I'd deliver Malaya in the pool but she arrived so fast we didn't manage to fill it up with hot water!
My little Air Noman wanted to arrive straight in the air. (Our birth story can be found HERE)
Oh, and of course my vision of the birth team sitting in the living room watching movies and eating couldn't be further from reality! 😂 Everyone was busy trying to fill the pool with the hot water. We had to use purified water as the tap water here is not good quality so it needed to be heated up and brought over bit by bit.
Luckily I managed to deliver at home so I didn't have to worry about all the procedures that are imposed on women in hospitals but I mentioned my wishes in case if I had to be transferred. I know it was very unlikely to happen but still better be safe than sorry!
BEFORE BIRTH
Talk to everyone who will be present in the house
Prepare the space
Prepare food and drinks for birth team
DURING LABOR
I am safe, unobserved and and free to follow my instincts
Alone in the room with Angelo
Birth team relax in the living room, eat, drink, talk, have a good time, movies will be available to watch
If we need help we will ask people to come in the room
Not too much light and noise, calm and quiet atmosphere
No inferences with the natural birth, no medications, no interventions
No cervical exam unless I ask
Free to be in whatever position my body wants to be
Pushing instinctively, in my own way, in my own time
Angelo catches the baby
I make final decisions about everything
AFTER ARRIVAL
Skin to skin contact immediately after birth- no separating me from the baby. Cover us with blankets for the cold but no dressing up and washing the baby
NO cutting the cord
NO procedures on the baby *no vaccines, no Vitamin K shot, no injections at all, no eye ointment)
Birth team :
Angelo
Teshita- comadrona
Estela and daughters- support
