The Importance of a Birth Plan - Health Channel

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The Importance of a Birth Plan, Health Channel

The most important birth plan is the discussion that a patient has with her doctor prior when going to give birth.

Dr. Alberto Sirven, Medical Director of the West Kendall OB/GYN Program and Women and Infant Credentials Committee Chairman with West Kendall Baptist Hospital, advises consulting with a specialist before going into a labor.

According to Dr. Sirven, a good birth plan includes: the people who are with the new mom during the labor time, how many members of her family she wants with her, type of pain management she wants to have or to have a vaginal delivery or cesarean section.

Transcript

The Importance of a Birth Plan, Health Channel

How important is it to have a birth plan? >Well there’s different types of birth plans there are some people they go to the internet and search for certain things, and google it and decide which birth plans they want to do. But I think the most important birth plan is the discussion that you have with a doctor prior to going to give birth. I think the whole idea of the night month is to get confident in your doctor and the professionals that are around you. In order to discuss all the things that are concerning to you, because if you go to the internet and you search something and write it out even though those might be your decisions and what you like to do some of them might not be safe, some of them might not be more adequate, so I think discussing with your doctor, with your provider, your nurse midwife, or whoever’s gonna be present with you during that time is important. So you could discuss all those things prior to having going to labor. >And can you give us some examples like for someone out there who says okay so what is a birth plan look like, what is it usually include? Usually a birth plan includes the people who are there with you during the labor time, how many page… I mean… How members of the family you want it to be with you. What type of pain management you want to have, whether or not you would like to have a complete vaginal deliver or supposed to a cesarean section. Mainly those are things are a concern, which vaccines you want to give to the babies afterwards, whether or not you feel comfortable having them a nurse midwife present or a physician present. Al of those are part of your birth plans.

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