As we’re hitting the third trimester and writing birth plans (birth preferences as I like to call it), don’t forget to be very specific!

1) When you are taking a tour of your hospital, please ask about their use of pitocin for after birth. I was just made aware that hospitals are now doing this routinely to force the uterus to shed everything instead of letting it naturally do its thing. It’s a blanket routine to stop hemorrhaging(<5% chance), regardless if you are or not, because they don’t want to deal with it. Some women like the reassurance of it, but I find it horrifying.

2) Ask about what their version of skin to skin is. It widely differs, how? Idk🤷‍♀️ my hospitals version is putting a blanket in between me and baby 🤦‍♀️

3) Ask about delayed cord clamping. Again, every hospital differs with what they do. Mine is 90 seconds standard, which to me isn’t long enough.

4) if you want to labor in the tub, ask about their waterproof Doppler’s. There is no reason that you need to get out of the tub for them to monitor because they can do it with the Doppler.

5) don’t forget your preferences for episiotomies, vacuums, manually stretching of the skin with fingers

6)make sure your support person is 100% clued in and make sure that they need to be aware of what the hospital staff does!!!

Yes, things happen during labor that can be very unpredictable which is why a lot of women don’t write plans. But not writing one opens a lot of doors for hospital staff to bully you into things that you would prefer not happen and prevent you from doing things that you want done.