Examples of things to put in a birthing plan. Some women want no medical intervention, if that is the case, you want to make sure you put that on there. Some women are OK with an epidural, but are not OK with other pain relieving drugs. If you are interested in a water birth, and the facility offers that choice, write it down. Delayed cord cutting, Daddy cutting umbilical cord, no use of forceps, use of birthing balls, and many more. My main thing during my first labor was to be able to walk/move and for them not to pester me about an epidural, I wanted to do it without out as long as I could, and if I wanted it, I would request it. Obviously every woman and every birth is different. With my second my plan was much different than my first. My absolute main thing with my son was no c-section unless my life or my son's life was in danger.
If you don't know about some of these things, I suggest looking them up to see where you stand on them. I really wanted a water birth with my first, but our hospital didn't offer that option, and to do that I would have had to drive 45 minutes. I decided that taking a 45 minute drive (possibly longer in traffic) was not something I wanted while laboring, so I decided against that. I also wanted to attempt to labor naturally without any drugs at all. The staff was more than accommodating with that, and I walked the halls for the first 4-5 hours of my labor with Sophia. That of course all changed when they broke my water at 7 cm, and they were awesome about getting the anesthesiologist when I realized that maybe I couldn't do it. A good thing to know if you intend to try no epidural, is that 8cm is the last chance you have to get it, once you hit 8, you are going without. Luckily, I was able to still get it. Delayed cord clamping/cutting is beneficial to your baby because that cord blood is full of nutrients and they get as much of that as possible if you delay. Birthing balls/walking and moving, can help immensely with not only pain, but progression as well.
I also want to emphasize, that while it is always a great idea to have a birthing plan ready, sometimes things happen and birthing plans go out the window. Both times for us, that ended up happening. Sophia's birth was great at first, everything went well (even though I did end up with an epidural). Then when it was time to push, she turned face up. They tried turning her a few times with no success (face up makes it harder for them to come out). They had me try pushing, but she was stuck. They tried a few things to make her drop just a bit to more thinking that if they could get her just a bit farther into the birth canal, they could use the vacuum. Those didn't work. They gave me the option of trying to push through it or a c section. I opted to push through, but after 4 hours of pushing, I was told I no longer had the option. I needed a c section. It was awful to me, and we had a few complications. The worst part was that I didn't get to see her until about 3 hours after she was born. With Bret, at least the major thing I wanted, happened. I did not have a c section. My water broke with him at home, so the contractions were already super intense, I ended up getting the epidural at only 3.5 cm, it didn't work as effectively as Sophia's, so I also got a shot. It all went downhill with Bret when they lost his heart rate. After a minor freak out, they finally got an internal monitor on him and found his heartbeat, unfortunately it was dropping significantly with each contraction. They were about to wheel back to prep for another c section, when he finally decided he needed to be out right then. We had intended to delay cord clamping, but his cord was wrapped around his neck 3-4 times and he swallowed fluid, so that didn't happen. The biggest thing to remember is that it is all about your safety and the baby's safety.
Here is a sample birthing plan (this is what mine looked like when in labor with my first):
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