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Talk to your midwife about it. My Dr has asked me about a birth plan, so she knows what I would like. There is only a VERY slim chance that she wouldn't be available for my delivery, so I am not worried about writing it down. Plus, my DH knows, so he can always tell the attending physician/nurses if for some reason I can't.

I would tell your midwife though, and ask her the best way to write it out in case she isn't there.

Also, from experience, don't be upset if your birth plan doesn't work out! I wanted to go all natural with my first, but things didn't go that way! My best advice is to go into it with a plan, but an open mind

There is a printable birth plan writing plan on the Bump. It gives information on what to include and multiple choices on everything.

@navy_mommy- You sound exactly like me. I really pushed for DH to let me have a home birth, but no go. He was really against it.

I didn't have a written one. I did ask my OB what I needed to do to help me get what I wanted: no interventions, med-free, etc. She advised me on when I should show up if those were my preferences and no complications arose. It worked out great for me but I also prepped my husband on my wants/plans and he was to be my advocate should I not be able to be one for myself.

@Navy_Mommy: My OB said don't show up until you can no longer talk or do anything else during contractions, which should put me around 5cm. She said if I could get to 5cm before showing up then she'd require they put a hep lock in for emergencies but that I'd be allowed to walk around if I wanted and wouldn't require constant fetal monitoring. Every hospital and practitioner have their own requirements and rules so I'd definitely suggest checking with your doctor and hospital. When we did the hospital tour I asked the guide if things like fetal monitoring and IV fluids were required and she said it was up to the OB. I've heard of hospitals where things like those aren't up the OB and the hospital had its own policies that had to be followed.

I had one and swear as soon as we walked through the doors of the hospital it disappeared!

I had talked through it with my doctor, who seemed to be pretty supportive of it, but as soon as it came to it everything was different. =(

This time, since I'll be at home I don't really need one. =)

I didn't have one in written form, but I did some reading and research and had a few ideas, like no interventions unless medically necessary, immediate skin to skin contact after birth and delayed cord clamping/cutting.

We had a birth plan, which we got approved by our doctors and midwives prior to birth. In it, we addressed medicine, c-section, food/water, cutting the cord, well, everything really and it was only a page and a half. It really helped us because our RN actually read it and went by it. If I can find it on my work computer, I can email it to you if you'd like.

I plan to have a written birth plan. I will discuss it with my OB and I'll also check out the template on The Bump

I'm going to have a midwife or a doula at my birth - they'll let me know if they need a birth plan, or if verbal instructions are enough.

We don't have one yet, and I don't know if we will. I'll wait to decide until closer to the end.

i have no birth plan. i need to start looking into this. but i think i'm going to do c-section, so don't think there's much to write about.

I had a birth plan written out early on but since the time came and I was wavering on everything so I told my husband, put it back in the bag--don't give it to the nurse. I really liked my birth plan. But I just decided I'd rather communicate the decisions to the nurses as it came up. I did go over it with the midwife a few months prior. I like that it was so concise with everything important on one page. I got some ideas from things I found on the web. I'm willing to share if you want it.

My good friend is a young, yet experienced nurse in the Baby/Mom ward and she said the secret joke is that when mom's show up with a 40 page birth plan, they roll their eyes and say...uh-oh, here comes a c-section. Ok, you may not think that is funny. It actually worried me....so anyway, I made sure to fit it on one page.

@Navy_Mommy: oh i agree..that's the unfiltered neg. comment. That's just what ends up happening often in her experience...She's not in labor and delivery if it makes u feel any better. She's the nurse in the other dept. after all is said and done.

@Navy_Mommy: I'm friends with several LDR nurses and they actually routinely roll their eyes and laugh at people who walk in with novels for birth plans. My thoughts are this: the doctors and nurses have gone through years of school, many training sessions, and deliver babies every day. I plan to educate myself throughout my pregnancy and then trust the trained professionals to do their job.

I often think about how I would feel if someone walked into job and tried to tell me how to do it after reading some articles online. I went to school for 4 years, am licensed, trained, and experienced. I understand there are some differences between teaching and delivering a baby and it is a once in a lifetime experience to birth your child and you should be allowed to express your preferences but at the same time I think the whole "birth plan movement" has gotten a little out of hand. It's almost like the trained, licensed medical professionals have become the enemy and viewed as working against new parents. In reality, most of them are great people who love their jobs and want you to have a healthy, happy delivery.

Our OB doesn't believe in birth plans. She just wanted to know if I could or could not tolerate pain and thus, whether or not I wanted an epidural. Our hospital is very supportive of natural birth, which is the route I took, so not having a birth plan was not such a big deal.

@eeh: I had a birth plan, but do agree that first time moms can go overboard with them. Mine was bullet points, approved by the doctors beforehand, and limited to a page and a half. It was important to me that which ever RN was assigned to me be able to read it quickly and understand that we wanted to know what was recommended by them because we were all part of the same team, not the enemy.

@Navy_Mommy: Yes because we didn't know Wombat's gender until birth and we had to call the baby something other than baby. Wombat's are fiesty; we needed a baby who'd fight, so Wombat is was. We had bright green Team Wombat shirts too. It was awesome.