Birth Plan For: Varrin, Edi & “Miss Roo” Swearingen
~ “Team Swearingen”
Due Date: January 22, 2002
Additional Birthing Coaches: Tracy & Paul Guest
Caregiver: Dr. Alfred Peters
Hospital: Clovis Community Hospital
Please accept this birth plan in the spirit in which we’ve intended
it. These are simply our ideals and preferences for labor and delivery.
Where there is a medical necessity to do differently than we have set forth
in the following outline, know that we trust our caregiver, Dr. Alfred
Peters (or designee) and the clinical staff of Clovis Community Hospital,
to make safe, health conscious decisions regarding our care. However,
we would like to be informed of procedures prior to carrying them out and
would like to be directly involved in making decisions. We admit
that we are not experts and know that ultimately God is in charge of the
birth of “Miss Roo”. With that said, please accept this birth plan
as our strong preferences only and know that if any of our feelings change,
we will notify the clinical staff immediately.
Our rooming preferences are simply to have a private postpartum room if possible and to have “Miss Roo” room-in with us. If a private room isn’t available, please make sure to give our roommate earplugs if they don’t like jazz music J.
Our preferences for pain relief are an epidural, as soon as possible. This is no joke! Until administered, we will plan to use relaxation/breathing techniques, massage and position change/walking.
If for some reason an epidural cannot be administered, expect me to be grouchy and to beg for more pain relief options (i.e. Stadol, someone to knock me out, etc.) J
When the Epidural is administered, we would like to have any catheter insertion, internal fetal monitoring, and/or any other procedure done after the Epidural medication has taken effect. It is our understanding from previous experience that this is standard hospital policy/practice. We prefer local anesthetic for repair of small tears and/or episiotomy (if necessary).
We would like to be able to have clear liquids and ice chips during labor, preferably Vodka if I am unable to get an epidural! Are you beginning to see the severity of this request? J
We would prefer to push in a semi-lying position as long as that continues to be effective. We would also prefer to try a “hands & knees” position if “Miss Roo” is posterior to see if we can get her to turn naturally, prior to using forceps and/or cesarean delivery.
Should a cesarean delivery be necessary, whether a general anesthetic or epidural/spinal block be used, Varrin should be allowed to join with “Miss Roo” shortly after birth, hold her as soon as possible and remain with her at all times. We would prefer that intubation, catheter insertion, etc. be done after anesthetic takes place and we understand this to be standard hospital policy/practice.
We are planning to breast-feed and would like to do so as soon as possible after delivery (see “additional notes” below).
We are expecting “Miss Roo” to be a little girl but should she actually arrive as a “Mr. Roo” we plan to circumcise and would like to take care of that in the hospital prior to discharge.
We would like to take video/photos of the labor prior to Phase II labor
and post delivery, after Roo has been checked and stabilized.
Additional Notes:
We gave birth to Edison Micah Swearingen January 9, 2001 and had an enjoyable and pleasant time doing so. We had a very easy and quick delivery. We were induced by amniotomy and Pitocin at 6:30 a.m. and Edison was born at 10:12 a.m., just 3 hours and 40 minutes later. Therefore, I think the following items are noteworthy:
· Having given birth only one time before we cannot be certain, but we may have another very quick delivery. Therefore we would like to know as soon as feasible how far along we are and when the deadline is for requesting epidural pain medication. We don’t want to miss our opportunity. Seems I cannot stress that enough, huh? J
· There was one area in which we think things could have been
handled better by both ourselves and hospital staff. We had a terrible
time breastfeeding Edison in the months following his birth. We think
that it may have been partially prevented if we had gotten him to the breast
right away after delivery. We stated in our birth plan with Edison
that we wanted to breastfeed right away and once Edison was born, we solicited
help from our nurses to call for the lactation consultant. Unfortunately,
with all the excitement, commotion, room changes, etc., we received little
help from the hospital staff with regard to breast feeding and Edison was
not first fed until approx. 2:00 p.m. We feel we should have been
more assertive and we realize that now. Let us reiterate that we
would like to breast feed within one hour, barring no unforeseen complications
with birth.
Thank you in advance for adhering to our birth plan as closely as possible.
We appreciate having you be a part of Team Swearingen and the birth of
“Miss Roo”.
If Varrin is unable to be present at the birth, any reference herein
to “Varrin” should be replaced with “Tracy and/or Paul Guest”.