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Getting readyWeeks 28–40

How Do You Write a Birth Plan? What to Think About and Include

A birth plan records your wishes for labor and birth: where, who with, pain relief and your baby's first hours. Go through it with your provider or midwife.

  • MyPregnancy editorial
  • Updated
  • 2 min read
  • 10 sources

Not yet medically reviewed. This article sums up published guidance from the sources at the end. It is not medical advice: follow your own midwife or doctor.

On this page
  1. What to think about
  2. Using the birth plan in the app
A blank spiral notebook with a pen on a gray surface.
Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash

A birth plan sets down your goals for labor and delivery in writing. You share it with your ob-gyn or other provider and the rest of your health care team, so they know what you want.

Childbirth can bring surprises, and things do not always go as planned. If that happens, your team will work with you to make safe choices. You can also change your mind, for example about pain relief.

What to think about

  • Place of birth: which hospital or birth center, and what it has to help you cope, such as birthing balls, stools, baths or showers
  • Birth partner: who will support you. Ask how many people can be with you during the birth
  • Pain relief: talk through the options at a prenatal visit and find out what your hospital offers. You do not have to decide until labor
  • Moving around: whether you want to walk and change positions, and which position you would like to give birth in
  • Monitoring: your baby's heart rate can be checked at set times or recorded continuously. If you have no complications or risk factors, either is acceptable
  • Skin-to-skin: whether you want your baby held against your bare skin straight after birth. This helps your baby start to breastfeed
  • Cutting the cord: say if you or your partner want to cut it, so your provider knows
  • Delivering the placenta: this usually happens 5 to 30 minutes after the birth. Ask your provider what to expect
  • Feeding: how you plan to feed your baby. Most healthy babies are ready for a first breastfeed within an hour of birth

Using the birth plan in the app

The app asks these nine questions. Answer each one in your own words, or tap a suggestion to get started. Show my plan puts all your answers on one screen, and you can change an answer at any time.

Save as PDF makes a copy to give your provider. Go through your answers with them at a prenatal visit, so they know your goals before labor starts.

Sources

  1. NHSWhat to include in your birth plan
  2. NHSPain relief in labour
  3. NHSThe stages of labour and birth
  4. NHSWhat happens straight after the birth?
  5. NHSHospital bag checklist: what to pack for you and your baby
  6. ACOGThinking About Childbirth Without Pain Medication? Here's How to Prepare.
  7. ACOGMedications for Pain Relief During Labor and Delivery
  8. ACOGFetal Heart Rate Monitoring During Labor
  9. ACOGBreastfeeding Your Baby
  10. Office on Women's HealthLabor and birth

Last checked .

Written by the MyPregnancy editorial team from the sources above.

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