Create A Birth Plan Checklist

A green birth plan is a written checklist of your preferences during your labor, delivery, and hospital stay; the act of creating it will help you, your partner, and your health care providers talk about what you would like during this oh-so-important life event. It is also a tool that you can use to identify and inform the support people who will be there to help you. See the end of this chapter for a basic list of topics for such a birth plan.

A birth plan is not, however, a binding contract or a rigid set of rules. It is a list of your desires, a record that you would like all those involved in the delivery of your baby to know about and to work toward fulfilling, assuming that your preferences are medically feasible.

A birth plan encourages communication between you and all those who will care for you during labor and delivery. It allows everyone to put on the table their thoughts about your decision to have a green birth. Far better to find out now that one of your support team does not agree with your plan while there’s still time to make adjustments, rather than when your little one is pushing to be born and you’re in no position to discuss the problem. The following are the questions you will answer as part of creating your birth plan:

The following are the questions you will answer as part of creating your birth plan:

• Who will be my health care providers: medical doctor? midwife? doula?

• Where will I deliver my baby: hospital? birthing center? home?

• Is the birthing room designed and maintained in an eco-friendly way?

• If not, what can I bring so as to create as green an environment as practical?

• What kind of delivery will I have: natural? medicated? cesarean?

• What will baby’s first meal be: breast or bottle?

• What kind of linens, diapers, creams, cleaners, and other baby products do I want for my green birthing room?

• How about something green or natural in the room, like a houseplant or seashells, or a piece of driftwood?

My Birth Plan

1. My baby will be delivered:

____ at home

____ in a freestanding birthing center

____ in a hospital birthing center

____ in a hospital delivery room

2. The health care providers on my team will be:

____ my partner or other lay coach

____ a doula

____ a midwife

____ a medical doctor

3. I would like the delivery of my baby to be:

____ natural childbirth

____ medicated with narcotics

____ medicated with a nerve block

____ medicated only if requested during the course of my labor

4. I would like my delivery room to:

____ use natural-fiber sheets and diapers

____ ‑cleanse my baby with pure water only, or if necessary pure cleansing products that I will supply

____ avoid using facility-issued cleansers, lotions, or creams on my baby

5. ‑I would like my baby’s first meal to be:

____ breast milk

____ supported by a lactation consultant

____ hospital-supplied formula

____ organic formula brought from home

____ my organic formula offered in non-BPA bottles with silicone nipples