Pregnancy - labor and delivery: birth plan

During your scheduled visits to the doctor, find out what will happen during labor. Think about what you would like and write down a rough plan of action, which you can learn at a school for young parents or create yourself. Samples of this plan can be downloaded from the Internet.

Be prepared for the fact that not everything may go according to plan, be patient. Your experience after birth may be completely different from what you expected. In case of an unforeseen situation, the doctor makes the decision for your safety and the safety of the baby. You can still somehow influence some decisions, but the final word is with the doctor.

Don't forget to choose a maternity hospital, a doctor who will deliver the baby, and also think about whether you would like someone close to you to be nearby. If you haven't attended a school for young mothers before, it's high time to sign up, starting from the sixth or seventh month of pregnancy.

Think about what type of pain relief you would like, what medical procedures may be needed, including fetal heart rate monitoring, and how you would like to spend the first hours with your newborn.

Relaxation techniques

• Natural birth: pain control without painkillers, such as focused breathing, distraction, massage, imagery and constant support during labor. Acupuncture and hypnosis are very effective in some cases.
• Water birth helps reduce pain and stress, and makes the birth process easier and faster.
• Movement during labor, whether continuous or intermittent monitoring. Most women want to move around during labor, which reduces discomfort, but in difficult labors, constant monitoring of the fetus is necessary.
• Eating and drinking during labor. Some maternity hospitals allow you to drink water or suck on ice, but eating is prohibited because solid food is digested slowly during labor, there is a risk of vomiting, and if surgery is necessary, anesthesia is only given on an empty stomach.
• Listening to a pleasant melody.
• Changing body position during pushing.

Medical painkillers

• Epidural: A continuous injection of pain medication into the epidural area of the spinal cord to partially or completely block sensation in the lower body. Light epidurals allow the woman to feel what is happening and to push, reducing the need for a cesarean section or termination of labor.
• Pudental or paracervical anesthesia: the introduction of an anesthetic into the abdominal area. Pudental anesthesia is considered one of the safest forms of anesthesia, since only the birth canal is anesthetized. Paracervical anesthesia is used less often than pudental, which is considered more effective.
• Narcotics, mainly dimerol, are used to relieve anxiety and pain, but they have limited analgesic effect and cause side effects in both mother and baby.

There are other types of anesthesia, but they can only be prescribed by a doctor during labor. They are usually an integral part of other medical procedures that are performed in emergency situations. These include:

• Local anesthesia: subcutaneous injection of an anesthetic to numb the area before the epidural is administered.
• Spinal block: An injection of a painkiller into the spinal fluid that quickly and completely numbs the lower body during a forceps delivery or cesarean section, making pushing impossible.
• General anesthesia: the woman inhales or receives an intravenous anaesthetic, causing her to lose consciousness. This type of anesthesia is considered unsafe and faster than epidural or spinal anesthesia. Therefore, general anesthesia is only used in emergency situations when there is a need to quickly extract the fetus, and when an epidural catheter has not yet been placed.

Medically assisted procedures during childbirth

• Induction of labour, including rupture of the membranes and use of drugs to open the cervix and stimulate contractions. This is done when medically necessary, such as when the mother has high blood pressure or other dangerous conditions.
• Fetal heart rate monitoring may be continuous, as in the case of difficult labor, or periodic to determine the condition of the fetus.
• Episiotomy is a perineal incision to facilitate labor and reduce labor time. Massage is used to prevent perineal rupture or the pushing itself is controlled.
• Application of forceps or vacuum extraction of the fetus when labor has ceased, when pushing is required, or when fetal distress syndrome is observed.
• C-section.

If you've had a cesarean section before, you may want to try to give birth vaginally or plan to have a repeat cesarean section.

Newborn care

• You can bank cord blood for possible use of stem cells to treat your baby in the future, but this needs to be planned early in your pregnancy.
• Your baby may stay with you for at least an hour immediately after birth. In some maternity hospitals, mother and baby will stay in the same room throughout the entire hospital stay.
• Vitamin K administration, blood tests, and ophthalmic medications may be delayed to help calm the baby after birth.
• Consider when and whether you want to have visitors, including other children in your family.

You can ask not to give your baby water or dry formula during feeding to avoid problems with breastfeeding.

[ 1 ], [ 2 ]