Hellobee Boards

If your birth plan is 'go to hospital, follow doctor's directions, have baby safely' then no, you don't need it. If you're delivering in a hospital, but you have midwives, or you have any really specific, fairly atypical desires (no drugs, no epidural, whatever), then it's helpful. I had one, but I found that the midwives basically agreed with all of my desires, and typically practiced them anyway, so I really didn't need it.

My midwife said that everyone at my hospital took birth plans very seriously, that they weren't mocked or disregarded. She did ask that we keep them brief, because if she had to spend 20 minutes reading it, that was 20 fewer minutes she had to spend with me. So keep that in mind.

I didn't feel the need for a birth plan because everything specific I wanted was already in line with the practices of the hospital and midwives I delivered with. What I did do was read The Birth Partner with my husband and discuss in detail my expectations and preferences for the birth so that as my support person he would be prepared for what the stages of labor would probably look like and think about contingencies.

My birth plan was whatever baby needed but the birth centre gave us a form to fill out and return that let us tell them our birth preferences, like did I want to birth the placenta naturally, do delayed cord clamping etc.