Writing a birth plan

On this post I will tell you why I think birth plans are so important, in general, and particularly in the Luxembourgish birth system. I will as well give you a few tips on how to write one!

Birth plans and the birth system in Luxembourg

I trully believe that birth plans are always useful no matter the context, but in the particular situation here in Luxembourg, they become super important.

As you probably know, here in Luxembourg you cannot chose the midwife that will be with you during your labor and birth. (If you didn’t know about this, you can read the post I wrote about the birth system in Luxembourg). You can chose your doctor, but they will only show up for the actual birth (and if you are lucky they won’t even make it until after the baby is born, as it was my case 🙊). This means that while you labor at the hospital, the only person you will know beforehand is your chosen birth partner. All the medical staff will be new to you, and they will not know you, your wishes or your preferences.

So your birth plan is the perfect way to let them know what kind of birth you desire, what are your fears and worries, and what you hope for. A birth plan is much more than a list of “demands” and of interventions you would like to avoid: it’s a way of sharing with the medical staff what kind of birth you wish to have.

Flow with determination

Of course, you cannot plan for a birth, it will unfold as it’s meant to. But the act of imagining the birth you desire is also a wonderful exercise that will allow you to connect with your wishes. And then by writing it you are able to share it with the people who will be around you in that moment. Putting things in written form is also a way to own and acknowledge your feelings and thoughts.

Below I will give you some personal tips on how to write a birth plan, and I will share my own. But for the moment I would like to stress the importance of having one. Of connecting with your desires, putting t in written, and then, really important: making sure everyone reads it!! Ask to every new person you see at the hospital if they have read it. Or even better, have your birthing partner ask them, so you don’t need to think about it. My husband asked any midwife we saw if they had read our birth plan 😂 and we also commented the key points with them, just in case!

Make a ritual out of it

The planning is more important than the plan. And the adapting is more important than the planning.

I hope I have convinced you already of the importance of the simple act of writing a birth plan. So my suggestion is to make a ritual out of it! Make it a nice, peaceful moment to reflect and connect. Put on your birth playlist, maybe light some candles, make yourself a nice cup of coffee or cacao tea. Use this time to envision the way in which you would love to spend your labor, your ideal encounter with your baby, your first hours together.

If you need help connecting to what you really want or figuring out your options, you can always book a prenatal consultaton with me to work together on your birth plan, or you can come to the workshop I will be teaching at Centre Lunata.

Some tips to write a birth plan

Ok, now we can move on to the practical part. I’d like to share a few personal tips to help you write it. If you want some inspiration, you can see my own Birth Plan (scroll down). The Clinique Bohler has also some examples of Birth Plans available on their website (in French)

So here are my tips:

✨ Keep it short! no more than one page front and back. Midwives are quite busy and won’t have time to read longer documents, and also you wouldn’t want half of your text to get lost among all your paperwork!

✨ Keep it organized. I separated it in three parts, basically the 3 stages of birth: labor, pushing, and after birth.

✨ Do not just write a list of “demands”, but give some context whenever possible. Talk about what you wish and what you hope for. This might help midwives understand and connect better with your expectations.

✨ It’s always nicer if you phrase things on the positive. Instead of saying “I don’t want to lay down during labor”, try to say “I would like to move freely during labor”.

✨ But be assertive about what you surely don’t want. If you don’t want to be offered and epidural, if you don’t want to push on your back, if you don’t want oxitocyn injected to release the placenta: explicitly say so! (and talk about this with your doctor beforehand).

✨ Even if you think your doctor (or midwife for countries where you can chose them) already knows, still write it down. You don’t know who will be there with you, and they are humans and can forget! On my first birth both my doctor and my midwife knew I didn’t want an epidural, but the anaesthesiologist came in assuming I was going to have one.

✨ Add also the little things you want, besides medical procedures. Would you like to have music, low lights? Add all that! as you can see on my birth plan I wrote that I wanted to touch the head and to pick up the baby and bring him to my chest myself if it was possible. For me these details were important and being able to do these things really improved my birth experience.

✨ And this is the hardest part of all: always have a plan B and a plan Z. I wanted to have a water birth but it was forbidden because of covid at that time, so even if I wrote it down, I had to plan for other options too. Even if you wish for a vaginal birth, it might be smart to include also your desire if the case comes that you need a C section.

✨ And last tip: once you have it written, show it and discuss it with everyone that might be involved. Your doctor will probably not read it, so if there are some points that are super important and might be controversial (such as no oxytocin for the 3rd stage, for instance), be sure to discuss them with them beforehand. Do not assume that because they didn’t say anything after you handed in your birth plan, then it means they agree! It probably means they did not read it 🙂

I hope this information is useful and it helps! Be sure to share it with anyone who might benefit from it too. And most important of all: enjoy the process!

Do you have any questions? You can leave a comment below or contact me to ask!