Have your birth plan in writing and take it too the hospital with you. Give your doctor a copy before hand.

Have your partner with you at all times, to back up your birth plan.

Demand to keep your baby with you at all times with a request to only breastfeed.

Most times, everything will go as planned, also most nurses and doctors are respectful of your wishes. Especially if you are careful to be respectful to them and just communicate that this means a lot to you because of your philisophical beliefs.

Be firm - you have every right! This is your body and your baby.

As for vaccines - state firmly that you do not want your baby vaccinated at birth. That you will decide later when the baby is fully stable whether or not to vaccinate.

Check out the following site, they have extensive information on state exemptions:

http://www.909shot.com/state-site/state-exemptions.htm


Also this for decisions and your rights:

http://www.909shot.com/Issues/Intro_Message.htm

Hi,

I've had four deliveries, the middle two naturally in hospital, and the last at home.

The first thing I realized about the 2nd one in the hospital (which was my first completely natural) was that the nurses are really in charge during labor, not the doctor. My recommendation would be to try to go meet these nurses. Be proactive! Go meet them all...they are very busy but figure out a time to meet them. Call the hospital and find what times are slowest. You don't want to seem pushy but you want to be...proactive! :)

Also, I was able to have my OB deliver my babies but I learned that if he wasn't on-call, I would be delivering with another doctor that I had never met. If this is the case for you, you may consider meething them as well. And don't let the doctor say, I'll give them your birthplan, you try to meet them yourself. Get that face-to-face contact. (Sorry, am I sounding pushy? :)

With my hospitals, they preferred I lie down during part of the labor because my BP went up a bit. Other than that they let me pace the room back and forth (this helps a lot!!). Then when it came down to pushing I wanted to do it upright but it never got to this point and I delivered supine. Another thing I have learned on reflection is this...they tell you 'when' to push but this is not respecting when the mother/baby natural push may be. So you may want to discuss this too. That you will push when you feel like it and not according to the count-to-ten push. That counting to ten push could increase problems like increasing the 'need' for episiotomy.

You are right, during labor is not the time to be reminding the hospital staff of your birthing plan and intentions. It would be best to have your partner understand your commitment so that he can be your advocate.

Or consider having a doula or some other advocate with you.

I would also check with the hospital again and find out if you need to do anything additional to ensure the baby doesn't get the drops, vit k, or shots. There are some good posts on this forum about it, you'd have to search for them.

This does seem to be a case where the more prepared you are, the more likely you'll have the birth you want. Look forward to this event exactly the way you want it to occur, as detailed as you can imagine. Think about the positive emotions/experiences.

Oh, another big point I would suggest is don't go to the hospital right away. THis can be a little tricky for a first delivery. But the earlier you go, of course the more chance for them to intervene. When the contractions are 4-5min apart, you are in early labor 1-4cm, when they start getting uncomfortable and feel pressure, you are probably mid-labor between 4-6cm. The end (which you will be in hosp by then) are very short 1-2 min gaps and very intense 7-10cm. The great thing about natural labor is that you really do get a break in between the contractions and you feel like you aren't even in labor.

If you have specific questions about practices you're questioning that we haven't covered, please ask!

Love
Lori

Your worries are completely warranted and no you are not obsessive, you sound like you are gonna make a fine mamma. If you can find another doctor with whom you feel more comfortable and respect that would be great. If not a doula is a great option. Many times the nurses view a birth with a doula as a time that they can take a break and let her do the work. She will also be a great support and advocate for you while you are focused birthing.

I agree that it can only be good to go familiarize yourself with the nursing staff and see what kind of vibes you get from them and I would present a birthing plan to your doc and see what the reaction is. If you really do not trust him, make an all out effort to see if you can find anyone who will take you on at this time with whom you feel you can trust.

At 7.5 months, I changed my doc. My doc made some comment about, "Wow, this baby has a tremendous head." I knew these were fighting words and decided I was not going to be in a position to fight while birthing. Make sure you hubby or doula knows of your wishes about the breastfeeding and eyedrops and vacs and that they will advocate for you. And remember you're the boss, you're paying for it. You are just another patient to them but this is your birth, your moment - of course you should be worried about someone stealing it - don't let 'em.

Most of the time, if you know what you want and won't take no for an answer, you will get what you want even in the hospital. It's the poor girls who don't know what they want or who are afraid to speak up.

Best of Luck and my warm wishes of a happy birth. You are gonna do great!

I have been told by local families that the hospital I am using is very medicine oriented and not so relaxed about natural methods. I am hoping that my Dr. (who these families were not familiar with) will help to balance the scale a little for me. I will mention this at my next appointment anyways! Also, one husband and wife team had a natural birth plan at another local hospital, known for being more open to natural methods, and said they needed to fight their way through even though they submitted their birth plan two weeks early! They were threatened with calls to DSS and such. But as a positive note their muscling paid off and they got what they wanted but did have to put up a fight, and I believe DSS wasn't called! So I guess we have to start toughening up and getting prepared to fight for our child to have a safe natural birth! Thanks for all your support!

I have had 2 children, both natural births in the hospital. I think the best thing to do is find a hospital that does support natural. My first birth, the hospital did not support it and the rate of natural was very slim to that of epidurals. My doctor had agreed the whole way along, and when it came right down to the delivery, he turned on me and wanted to do everything that I didn't want. However, my second birth was amazing and beautiful. Everything you could ever want. They put the baby on my chest right as the baby came out, did everything that I wanted. I hope all goes well for you. All I really have to say is if that is what you really want, stick to it. You have to be very strong on standing your ground, because some nurses and doctors will scare you into things that you don't want. If your husband is very supportive, hopefully he can stand up for you, because I get very weak and have to have my husband there to make decisions for me. Good Luck!! I wish you the best.