Some things to consider adding to your birth plan
These are things to research and ask for whether you're delivering in a hospital, at home, or at a birthing center!
Delayed cord clamping
Immediate skin to skin bonding
The Baby’s temperature, breathing, and heart rate are regulated by mom. Immediate skin-to-skin bonding keeps babies warm, eases their transition earthside, your breath helps to colonize their sterile gut with friendly gut bacteria that they will use for the rest of their life. you are all they have ever known in their life, you are their comfort and home. all measurements and checks can be done in mom’s arms or can wait an hour or two.
Freedom to labor in any position
Freedom to push + deliver in any position
Women’s birth canals are not straight, they are more at a 90-degree curve. When women push and deliver on their backs, we are hindering the natural movement & the opening of their tailbone that’s necessary for delivery. Every bit of force behind the pushes is being directed at your perineum, instead of pushing the baby down + out, this is why tearing is so common. Be sure you ask your Dr. to allow your body to tear naturally, rather than by episiotomy. Our bodies were meant to tear, not always is that necessary, though. When we tear naturally, the integrity of our muscles remains intact, when cut with an episiotomy, that muscular integrity is gone, so tears are much more severe in these cases. We are coerced to push on our backs to make for better access for the care provider, not because it’s what naturally feels best. If your body wants to push on your back, then do it, listen to your body.
Things to research
Hep B shot:
This is the second shot that is protocol to inject your 20-minute-old infant with. Let’s take a peek at this, shall we? Hep B is a vaccine used to immunizing your infant against infection caused by all known types of hepatitis B virus. Causes: Hepatitis B virus spread by some body fluids. Ways to contract this virus: Intravenous drug use, sexual intercourse, or dialysis. Do these sound like the lifestyle of your newborn? if you, as the mother, do not have hep b yourself, then you have several other options to this vaccine.
The “safe” amount for that baby is only 25 mcg per day. In the infant dose of hep B for your baby on the day they’re born = .25 mg – .25 mg converted into mcg is 250. Exponentially higher than the “safe” dose.
Circumcision:
Starting in the late 1800s, Victorian-era doctors began promoting foreskin-removal as a way to make boys stop pleasuring themselves. (It didn’t work) By the mid-20th century, routine medical (i.e., non-religious) amputation of baby boys’ foreskins had become a peculiarly American phenomenon – fueled, no doubt, by the fact that health insurers paid for it.
Though ignorance and misinformation are widespread, the pediatric literature itself (including guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics) actually is clear: a baby’s foreskin should NEVER be forcibly retracted. Using force to pull back a boy’s foreskin is painful, and can cause swelling, bleeding and infection.
Circumcision in America today is different from circumcision from biblical times. In bible times, only the very tip of the foreskin was removed, not the separating of the foreskin from the glans. The intact penis is designed by our Creator to be healthier and cleaner. Would God really give us something that needs to be amputated within the first week of life? Maybe He created men with foreskins for a reason. For protection. For sexual pleasure when in the right context (approx. 100,000 nerve endings are removed by amputating the foreskin)
Over the years, circumcision has been used as a “cure-all” for several ailments, but all have been medically disproven. We don’t perform genital mutilation on girls to prevent against UTIs, so why for boys?
Swaddling - Moro reflex:
The startle reflex in particular helps the baby process startling sensations (loud noise, sudden movement, waking up/falling asleep, etc.). When they are able to integrate this information, their brain learns that they can experience these sensations without imminent danger or harm. This lays the foundation for their brain’s understanding of all other sensory information like noise, touch, taste, smell, balance, vision. Without proper integration of the Moro/startle reflex, a child can develop an overreaction or hypersensitivity to sensory information. The Moro reflex starts in the womb at 9-12 weeks gestation and is ideally integrated (meaning baby does not startle easily or express the reflex) by 4 months old. This is the first primitive reflex to integrate, so it sets the stage for future nervous system development!