Birth plan: Karen, Sander and Tara or Rowan Plomp
We are Dutch people who moved to the States almost 2 years ago. We come
from a country where home births are normal and hospital births have a
minimum of interventions. We had our first 2 babies at home in the
Netherlands and we are planning to have a home birth again.
We realize that complications might arise and wrote this birth plan to
use if we have to transport to the hospital. In case of a transport, we
still would like to try to follow a natural birth as closely as possible.
We have prepared very well for the birth by following childbirth classes
and reading a lot and we expect to be part of the decision making when
interventions are needed. We do not want any medical procedure done on
either mother or baby unless one of us has given explicit consent to that
procedure. We would like to stay in charge of our own labor, with
assistance of the hospital staff where needed. We are trying for a
gentle, unmedicated birth. If we have to transfer, we still would like
our midwifes to be part of our birthing team and let them have an active
roll in the management of our labor and birth.
Karen does not want to receive a routine episiotomy, she prefers to risk
a natural tear. If we would need a c-section, we want Sander and the
midwifes to be present in the operating room. We also would like Sander
to hold our baby after the cesarean if Karen is not able to do that
herself.
We are participating in a film about midwifery, so we will most likely
have someone in the labor/delivery room to film our birth. Mary has
filmed a lot of births already and will be very unobtrusive.
When our child has arrived
We feel that our child is part of our family the moment he is born. We
have experienced care givers who worked under the misapprehension that
they own the baby until they decide to release it to the parents. Our
firstborn spent his first two weeks in hospital due to medical problems.
We felt he was effectively owned by the hospital during this period. We
do not want this to happen again.
We want to give our child as gentle an entry into the world as possible.
As with any of our children, any (non-emergency) procedure on him will
be done only with our explicit permission, and in a way that we are
comfortable with.
When our child is born, we want him to be placed on the mother's belly if
there are no medical problems. Karen plans to breast-feed as soon as
possible and we would like our child to be checked out while he is lying
on top of Karen. If possible, we want the umbilical cord to stop
pulsating before cutting the cord. We prefer you not to clamp the
mother's side of the cord, to reduce the risk of Rh sensitization.
We feel very strongly about not being separated from our baby at any
point. When necessary for the baby to leave the mother's side, Sander
will accompany him.
We do not want our child to receive a vit K injection, but instead want
him to receive oral vit K. Our child will not be circumcised. We want him
to receive the antibiotic eye ointment, but at least a few hours after
the birth.
We plan on breast-feeding exclusively. When this is not possible because
of medical reasons, Karen wants to pump milk for our baby. When our child
needs to be supplemented either with breastmilk or formula, we do not
want any bottles to be used to administer this, in order to avoid nipple
confusion.
We hope not to use the hospital at all, but if we need to transfer, we
are looking forward to having a positive birthing experience with your
assistance.