She's an awesome doctor. I think she's as close as you can come to having a homebirth without actually staying home and being attended by a midwife. She lives only a couple blocks away and has given us her cell #. We're to call her when we go into labor for sure and she'll likely head over and check me at home. If it's at night she said she'll just snooze on our couch for a while. Then we'll head to the hospital (3 minutes away) to deliver the baby and head home within a few hours. Since labor was only 8 hours for Cedric with 10 minutes of pushing, she's expecting this one to come pretty fast. She warned not to stay home too long or we may seriously end up with a homebirth after all. I just really do not want to end up having the baby in the car!
Anyway, here is the birth plan:
Tim & Lindy Vassar's Birth Plan
Our goal is to deliver our 2nd child as naturally and safely as possible. We view childbirth as an inherently normal and safe process and as a profound rite of passage, even if medical care must be a part of the birth.
We ask that no procedure, large or small, be performed without our full knowledge and consent. Please provide us with information on all available options with adequate time to ask questions and to make our decision.
Lindy's mother and two sisters may be present at the birth. We ask that during labor family and friends may come and go as we see fit.
Thank you for all your hard work and support in making this special time as peaceful and intimate as possible!
First Stage:
· Keep vaginal exams to a minimum.
· Intermittent external fetal monitoring.
· No IV unless mother becomes dehydrated, will accept heparin lock if necessary.
· Please do not offer chemical pain relief.
Induction and Augmentation:
· We prefer to use natural methods. No labor stimulants or the artificial rupture of membranes unless absolutely necessary. Under normal circumstances there is no hurry.
Second Stage:
· Prefer a natural tear to an episiotomy. Please use compresses, massage, and support to help avoid a tear.
· Mother to push at her own pace. Under normal circumstances there is no hurry.
· Use of delivery aids such as manually spinning or pulling the baby only with parents’ full consent.
Third Stage:
· Spontaneous placenta separation and delivery encouraged by nursing and fundus massage only. Please no cord traction, use of pitocin, or scraping of uterus. Under normal circumstances there is no hurry.
· We would like to view the placenta before it is discarded.
· Ideally, we would prefer to be discharged home within a few hours of birth.
· If baby is Rh positive, we will return within 72 hours for the Rho (D) immune globulin injection.
Baby Care:
· Baby held and nursed by mother immediately.
· One of parents to stay with baby at all times.
· Delay clamping of cord until cord stops pulsing. Grandfather to cut the cord after mother is draped.
· Delay routine examining until parents and 2-year-old brother have had sufficient time alone with baby.
· Breastfeeding only please.
· Baby will receive its first bath at home.
· We refuse the erythromycin/prophylactic eye treatment.
· We refuse the vitamin K injection. If abnormal circumstances exist, we may choose to administer oral vitamin K ourselves, which we will have with us.
· We refuse the hepatitis B vaccine.
· We refuse the newborn screening routinely done before discharge. We will return to have it done when baby is 1 week of age.
