Making a labour and birth guide helps you think about what you want from your labour and your baby's birth. It also helps your care providers understand what is important to you.
Topics we suggest including in your guide include:
- Support people you want with you
- Comfort measures you want to try in labour
- Pain management preferences
- Positions you want to try for labour and giving birth
- Your wishes in the case of unexpected events
- Who you want to announce your baby's sex
- Who you want to cut the umbilical cord
- Feeding plans
- Special requests (personal, language, religious or cultural practices)
- Taking your placenta home (PDF)
Ultimately, it will be your baby who determines the progress of your labour and birth. It's important to be flexible and open to changes throughout your labour and birth.
Pain relief methods help you to cope with your labour. These include breathing techniques, water therapy, body positioning, walking and massage, as well as medications (narcotics, nitrous oxide, epidurals). Your nurse will be with you to help guide you through these options.
Pain relief medication is available at your request with a doctor's or midwife's orders, but not everyone needs it. Your nurse is available to help you at each step if you need pain relief.
If you request an epidural, anesthesiologists are available 24 hours a day to help you with your choice for relieving pain.
You may wish to talk to an anesthesiologist in advance about your pain relief choices for labour, birth and/or Cesarean birth. This can be arranged through the
Anesthesia Clinic. Ask your doctor or midwife to arrange an appointment.
If you are having a planned Cesarean birth, also called a C-section, your doctor will pre-book your surgery date. You will be admitted to the hospital under the care of the surgery program, allowing you to come in on the date scheduled for your baby's birth.
If you need to give birth by Cesarean, one support person may stay with you in the operating room if your doctors agree.
