Ah, honesty.

That’s why I plan on making it only one page and bribing them with a gift basket full of junk food and the lastest celebrity magazines.

I had a client that kept handing her plan to a pushy nurse. The nurse kept tossing it aside. I desperately wanted to scream at the woman to READ IT already so there could possibly be some partnership in my client’s birth. Sadly, there wasn’t.

At least she was honest!!

I made a special short birth plan for the nurses at the hospital. My main one was on file, but I followed the “Hospital ticket/hospital ride” advice and put the important stuff on a 3×5 card. They followed my birth plan as best they could for what they do, I will give them credit for that.

Sad but true.

I bribed with fresh baked cookies, and I put a place on my birth plan to sign and date it. I found all the docs suddenly took it very seriously and read it carefully when they saw I wanted their signature! Never got a chance to give it to a nurse as I delivered less than 30 min after arrival, but I expect they’d take it seriously too!

I’m not sure if they ever read mine. They were pretty good at listening to the majority of it when I repeated it verbally though.

Even though I was planning to give birth in a natural-birth-friendly hospital I went prepared with six copies of my six bullet-point, large font birth-plan and packing tape to put it on the outside of my door. It never made it out of my bag. The best weapon in my “birth arsenal” was my husband. He was well-prepared with knowledge and prayer, confident in my ability, supported by our doula and had zero tolerance for being ignored. After we were admitted he care team “you can talk to me, I will talk to her”. No one said a word directly to me, unless asked, during my five hours of hospital laboring. Birth plans are great but your husband is better, don’t forget him!

Even though I was planning to give birth in a natural-birth-friendly hospital I went prepared with six copies of my six bullet-point, large font birth-plan and packing tape to put it on the outside of my door.It never made it out of my bag.The best weapon in my “birth arsenal” was my husband.He was well-prepared with knowledge and prayer, confident in my ability, supported by our doula and had zero tolerance for being ignored.After we were admitted he care team “you can talk to me, I will talk to her”.No one said a word directly to me, unless asked, during my five hours of hospital laboring.Birth plans are great but your husband is better, don’t forget him!

Forgot to the mention that by the grace of God, protection from my husband, and support from our doula I was able to have the natural birth that I wanted.

It’s the sad truth – most of the time they don’t read them and can even get hostile when presented with a birth plan. That doesn’t mean it should be that way, but if you want to get your point across, maybe just put the really important stuff on a 3×5 index that’s easy to read.

A great blog post by the Naval Gazing Midwife was written that touches this subject:
http://navelgazingmidwife.squarespace.com/navelgazing-midwife-blog/2010/4/2/re-post-you-buy-the-hospital-ticket.html

And very often, even if they do read your birth plan, they do so for entertainment value. The more natural and intervention-free you want your birth, the more they will make fun of your plans. Some of the REALLY bad nurses may pay attention and then deliberately try to violate your wishes, in an effort to “show you who is boss.”

Thing is, when you have reason to suspect that’s the case, unless your care provider is on your side and willing to fight for what YOU want, this is an obvious signal to switch care providers to someone who is more willing to stand up to the LDRP gorgons for you, or who practices in a different hospital (or a birthing centre or in your home).

They did used to read them. I haven’t had a baby in hospital since my oldest 9 1/2 years ago, though. I don’t know if it was the time or just where we were living, but birth plans were pretty rare. Not only did they read it, but one of the nurses actually came into my room and asked me if I was a nurse because I used proper terminology.

Sadly it didn’t help me at all, since I hit the idiotic 24 hour time limit after my water broke.

guess i got lucky with dd…..2 pgs (had every situation, induction, emergency c/s, PP, baby care, etc, on it) and they all read the whole thing. i ended up getting induced for medical reasons, and when it was time to push, the nurse came up to me and said ‘you said you didn’t want guided pushing, do you still feel the same way?’ i was really grateful that she did that – since i ended up with an epidural i couldn’t feel the ctx (but i could feel pushing) so i told her that and said please let me know when i am having a ctx so i don’t push against my body. we never had a problem with them following/not following it….i’m using the same birth plan for this birth.