The birth plan

Dear little soul

I wrote a birth plan back in April, and then together your Soul Papa and I revised it a few weeks ago. Now I think it's pretty much finalised.

The birth plan cannot be a document set in stone. It's full of "if this happens, then please do this or that" sort of clauses. But the gist of our birth plan is this:

• We would like a natural home birth.
• I want to "catch" you, be the first to touch you when you come out!
• We want skin-to-skin contact for the first 2 hours after your birth.
• I'd like to try breastfeeding in the first hour of your life outside my belly.
• If anything comes up during the labour that says we should go to hospital, then the midwife is to tell us in good time.
• We have researched the hospitals around us, and know where we'd like to go. Our first preference is a hospital which is 15 minutes' drive away (in the next town), whereas our second choice hospital is perhaps 5 minutes' drive away (in our town). Depending on the urgency of the situation, please let us go to the first preference.

And the rest of the plan is centred around having a hospital bag packed - just in case - and stocking the pantry full of delicious healthy snacks to celebrate the birth at home, before and after! We have put in a weekly order of flowers at our local florist to make sure we always have fresh flowers at home, and the bedroom is decked with all the nice candles and imagery to help me through the birth.

I don't think we can be any more ready than that, my love!

Love your Soul Mama

The nice thing about the suites in our first choice hospital is that you give birth and recover in the same space, there is a private bathroom in each suite, and there is a spot for your Soul Papa to sleep if necessary as one of the chairs pulls out into a sofa bed. It's very new too, only opened a month or so ago.