The Positive Birth Book Visual Birth Plan Cards

Product Information

When babies are born, their skin is covered in white clumps or patches called vernix careosa. This coating on baby’s skin has actually got a few benefits if left on baby’s skin, such as: helping baby to retain moisture and stave off bacterial infections or helping baby latch on. So it’s best to leave it on baby for as long as possible. 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 There’s many things that women might decide to do with the placenta after giving birth, such as burying it, eating it, donating it, etc. I personally didn’t feel the need to do anything with it but, if you do, keep it from this natural birth plan tempalate.

Starting with the environment in which you are giving birth, know that the more your body is relaxed, the more your will be able to birth “with ease”. And for your body to be relaxed (as much as possible, given the circumstances), it’s very important not to have too much noise around, to many bright lights or too much interruption. It's important to remember that giving birth doesn't always go perfectly to plan, and things may have to change at the last minute. Birth with an Epidural: If you already KNOW you don’t want to deal with any kind of labor pain, or need an epidural for medical reasons, then it’s best to plan and prepare for birth with an epidural. Epidurals are not bad. I repeat, epidurals are not bad! In fact, a TON of mamas think they’re totally amazing!!

Benefits of Your Visual Birth Plan

The main benefit is that your baby will receive extra blood and iron from the placenta, which can be particularly beneficial for preterm babies.

After a vaginal delivery, the baby is usually placed on you and covered with a warm blanket. You can let your provider know if you prefer to hold your baby skin-to-skin immediately after delivery or if want your baby dried off first. Getting to practice skin-to-skin care immediately after birth (if medically safe for baby) – even if this ends up being with your partner As per what I have written above, keep this one in your natural birth template if you want someone to help during the last stage of labor. Please hold off on any tests, weighing, etc. until after the golden hour and after baby has successfully nursedI 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.

Now, I don’t totally agree with ‘breathing’ baby out, as I personally still felt a very strong urge to push when the time came for me. However, I definitely didn’t need anyone to tell me when to do it or how to do it. It was like I was totally in sync with my body, and my body knew exactly what to do it and when to do it. The last thing you want after having just given birth is to have a lot of noise in the room and bright lights. Enjoy these precious moments to bond with your baby, smell the skin of your miracle newborn, be the first one to talk to them and nurse them. Everything that’s not strictly urgent during the so called “golden hour” can wait! They make planning your birth easy, fun and super simple to communicate with the rest of your birth team. I don’t want to use an epidural because of how it affects the baby as well. Nitrous Oxide has lesser known effects on babies than epidurals. However, my husband knows that if I’m exhausted by a long delivery, I will choose an epidural. After 32 hours of labor and no sleep, I chose an epidural with my 1st child at between 6 and 7 cm dilated. I was too exhausted to go any further and what was best for my baby, and I was to get some rest. The term ‘cord blood’ banking is misleading. The blood collected via umbilical cord is the baby's blood. When adults donate blood it is collected via their arm. We don’t refer to that blood as their ‘arm blood’. " - Rachel Reed

This sentence is probably more geared towards someone that has taken or is planning on taking a hypnobirthing course. In fact, one of the concept of hypnobirthing is that you definitely don’t need someone to tell you when to push: your body knows exactly when the time comes and, theoretically, you don’t ‘ push‘ your baby out, instead you ‘ breathe‘ them out. Be sure to MAKE A COPY, as you cannot edit the original, then save as a Google Doc, a Word doc, or a PDF.) Take some time to not only consider your own needs but the needs of the medical professionals that are attending to you.