Decisions in Childbirth

Nurses and doctors are in out. Cords are all over the place keeping an eye on you and baby making their sounds. Lots of questions are occuring and decisions need to be during various parts of your labor.  Sometimes all of this can be a little overwhelming and you are not sure what to do.

Your input and being heard make a big difference in the satisfaction you will feel from your birth story later on. One of the things to keep in mind during all of this, is this an emergency? If it is not, then you have a moment to think and its okay to say let me think about this for a moment and get back to you.   

During these moments, you can use your B.R.A.I.N to go through the decision process to figure out what is right for you. 

Benefits:

B stands for benefits. A question you may ask for benefits could be “How would this be helpful?”.  You medical team will then explain what the benefits of this option will be.

Risks:

R stands for risks. You may ask your care provider “What goes along with this?” or simply “What are the risks of this procedure?”. 

I stands for intuition. At this point you and your partner should check in with yourselves and each other to see what your gut is saying. It might be helpful to ask for five or ten minutes alone to talk and express yourselves freely. 

Nothing / Negotiations:

N stands for doing nothing or negotiations. Now that you’ve had a moment to take in all the information you’ve gathered, this is the moment where you can decide you want to wait on making a decision until something else happens or doing nothing at all if you dont feel its necessary.   You and your care provider can also negotiate a decision that is as close to a win-win as possible by discussing all the options and reaching a decision together that you are both comfortable with.