Birth Plan Builder

What a birth plan is for

A birth plan is a short note to the people caring for you: what matters to you, what you would like to try, and what you would like to talk about. It helps your support person speak up for you, and it gives a busy care team your wishes in one glance.

It is not a contract and it cannot cover everything. The most useful plans are short, kind in tone, and honest about what is still undecided. That is why this builder lets you mark any topic as “I’d like to discuss this” instead of forcing a choice.

Preferences worth deciding before labor

The builder groups choices the way labor actually unfolds:

• Who will be with you and how many people you want in the room.
• The room: lights, music, quiet, your own clothes, photos.
• Moving in labor: walking, a birth ball, water, eating and drinking, and the kind of monitoring that lets you move if your care team agrees.
• Comfort and pain relief: comfort measures first, open to medication, planning an epidural, or not decided yet.
• Pushing and birth,the first hour with your baby, and feeding.
• If plans change: what you would like during a cesarean or if your baby needs extra care.

Every choice is a preference. The builder does not suggest one option over another or say anything about safety; those conversations belong with your provider.

Questions to ask your provider

Many preferences depend on where you give birth. Whether there is a tub, what the policy is on eating in labor, whether a support person can join you for a cesarean: each hospital and birth center answers these differently. When you choose an option that depends on local policy, the builder adds the matching question to a numbered list at the bottom of your plan. Topics you marked for discussion are added too.

Bring the list to a prenatal appointment. Writing the answers next to each question turns your plan from a wish list into something your team has already seen.

How to print and share it

Press Make my birth plan, read it through, then press Print. The printout drops the website around it and keeps one clean page with your name and due date at the top if you added them. Most browsers can save the printout as a PDF to email or upload to a patient portal.

Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Press “Save on this device” to keep your plan for later. To change something, edit your answers and press the button again; print as many versions as you like.

If your plan changes

Plans change, and that is normal. The last section of the builder is there so your wishes still count if labor goes differently: being told what is happening, having your support person with you, and time with your baby as soon as possible. Every printed plan ends with a sentence asking your team to explain what is happening and what your options are.

BBU’s Intro to Childbirth class covers the stages of labor, early labor at home and the difference between practice contractions and the real thing, which makes many of these choices easier to make.