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The Birth Plan
What is a Birth Plan? A Birth Plan is a written or typed document prepared during pregnancy with instructions and preferences for care providers during labor and immediate postpartum. Templates abound on the internet, usually covering common hospital procedures and prohibitions such as I.V.s, eating and drinking, mobility, offering of pain medications, avoiding cesareans, and newborn procedures that include circumcision for boys, Vitamin K, prophylactic antibiotics for their eyes, Hepatitis B vaccine and offering artificial nipples. What a Birth Plan is Not A Birth Plan is not a binding contract. It does not obligate any of your care providers in…
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OB/GYN or Midwife?
Congratulations! You’re pregnant! How do you find the a care provider that is right for you? Google search I just did a Google search for OB/GYNs in Ruston and Monroe, Louisiana. There are four pages of listings, many of which are not even OBs. Others are group practices. A doctors you choose within a group practice will only be delivering your baby if they happen to be on call while you go to the hospital during labor. Otherwise, you will have whichever doctor on call within the group be your attending OB. Now add that because I know some of…
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Why See an OB
Why? Midwives offer the same tests and ultrasounds along the same timelines as obstetricians. Midwives are trained to perform physical examinations, including pelvic exams, and perform the same ongoing risk assessments during the course of pregnancy. In most states where home birth midwifery is legal, the client never needs to see a doctor at all. Why is it that the client in Louisiana needs to see an OB before they can start their care with a midwife? Some history… Louisiana was one of the first states in the US to legalize home birth midwifery during the ’80s. The concept of…