Giving birth your way

You are in charge

Giving birth is one of the most impressive moments of your life. At Kéita midwifery practice in Zoetermeer we believe that you are in charge! Writing down your birth wishes makes you think consciously about your birth and about what you do or do not want.

To make a good birth plan, it is important to inform yourself well about:

• How a birth works.
• How to cope with contractions and pushing.

Consider carefully what you, your partner and the people around you can do in this process. Also read about possible scenarios and your options in them. This prepares you as well as possible for the birth.

Why a realistic birth plan?

Nobody knows how the birth will go. We therefore advise not to write a plan that strictly lays down what you do or do not want from a care provider.

Why? In many plans we read, for example: “I do not want an episiotomy” or “I do not want to be induced.”

Suppose:

• Your baby is not doing well and needs to be born quickly to prevent a lack of oxygen. Would you not want a care provider to perform an episiotomy then?
• You are losing a lot of blood. Would you not want medication to strengthen the contractions to be started, to prevent excessive blood loss?

We all want the birth to go well and you to have a positive birth experience. Sometimes extra interventions are needed for this, such as medication to strengthen contractions or an episiotomy. By knowing in advance that this can happen, and why, you can actively take part in decisions about what is done.

If you have read up well:

• You will feel confident discussing with us or with an unfamiliar care provider which options there are when something happens, both during pregnancy and during the birth.
• You will feel confident asking whether something is really necessary and whether it could be done another way.

This allows you to have a say in your birth. However the birth goes, it will then not feel as if it just happened to you. It becomes your most beautiful experience, even if it goes differently than you hoped.

Our birth plan form

We have developed our own form to help you on your way. You can bring it along printed out or email it to info@keita.nl. Of course you may also use your own or another format. We do advise including the points described in our form, because they help you have a good birth experience.

Click here for the English form of Verloskundigenpraktijk Kéita.

Klik hier for the Dutch form.

Discussing your birth wishes

During your pregnancy we plan a special appointment to talk in detail about the birth. We then also take the time to discuss your birth wishes, if you have written them down.

On this website (in Dutch) you will find more inspiration for writing down your birth wishes.