Pregnant women are increasingly seeking an “Empowered Birth Experience,” but they aren’t quite sure how to achieve it. The Perinatal Advisory Council (PAC/LAC) has identified some valuable tips for pregnant moms.

• Be knowledgeable.  Educate yourself so that you will feel confident when making decisions about labor and delivery. Every medical intervention impacts your expected outcome, so make sure that you have enough information to make an informed decision before agreeing to anything.

• Write a birth plan that won’t be ignored. Don’t just copy and paste something off the Internet – that will turn your healthcare providers off and make them unlikely to read it.  Instead, do your research and write down simple notes about your ideal goals for the birth, any medical interventions you would like to avoid, laboring positions you’d like to try and preferences for pain medication.  Your healthcare providers will respect your birth plan as long as you have personally invested the time in researching and developing it and you understand the need to be flexible: no matter what you do, not everything will go exactly as planned.
  
  
  

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