Plan a Gentle C Section Using our Free Birth Plan Template

If you're pregnant and you know that you're going to deliver your baby by c-section, you're probably feeling a sense of relief that there's an end-date to your pregnancy and a sense of terror about being out of control of your birth at the same time. As a nurse, I've heard women complain for years that they feel as though they have no options when it comes to their cesarean. But I thing you'll see that's just not true by downloading my gentle c section birth plan template!

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Have a Gentle C Section Using our Free Birth Plan Template

It's totally normal to have mixed feelings, Mama!

In my 20 years of experience, I've led many women down the hall to the operating room for their birth. Some chatter nervously, some get very quiet and some start shaking. Personally, I've had two cesareans and I knew that if I - a nurse, doula and Lamaze teacher - was nervous, the average person must be really scared.

Want to chat about your gentle c section birth plan template? Book a call with me as your virtual doula and we can walk through it together over the privacy of Zoom.

You can have control over your cesarean birth experience

Over the last few years, as the rate of caesarean has grown, women have started to demand more from their birth. They're trying to infuse a personal, gentle touch into their birth day when it has the potential to be so sterile and cold.

The principles for a newborn are the same no matter how the birth happens- skin to skin immediately after birth is scientifically proven to regulate the baby’s temperature, improve bonding and make breastfeeding easier.

In fact, skin-to-skin immediately after birth may be more important for a baby born by c-section.

What is a gentle c section?

A gentle cesarean is still the same surgery as a regular cesarean. It’s not to suggest that the surgeon is otherwise being rough. But typically a baby is born very quickly during a caesarean because of the operating room environment: it’s cold, the baby has been subjected to the medications that the mom received so they want to make sure she’s breathing well, and let’s be honest- the operating room is the biggest money-maker in a hospital so time is money!

Learning your birth options using our free gentle c section birth plan template

A Gentle c section is when the birth team (doctors, anaesthetists and nurses) all agree to do everything possible to make this birth feel like it’s happening in a birthing room, rather than an operating room.

That may include:

• Delayed cord cutting
• Handing the baby to the mom for skin-to-skin and immediate breastfeeding
• Delaying the eye ointment 
• Doing the baby assessments while mom is holding the baby instead of taking her to the warmer across the room.
• Playing gentle music.
• Providing clear drapes so a mama can see her baby born
• Some have even been able to help lift their baby out of their tummy!

There are so many small things that can be adjusted if the birth team is on board, so ask for everything that you want! 

Not sure what you want? That's where our gentle c section birth plan template comes in handy. We've got you covered with three pages of options that may be available to you. You go through the template and choose which options sound best to you. It's like learning your options and choosing them at the same time.

Try to be flexible about c section options

It's important to be flexible with the things that just can’t be. If you must have your cesarean under a general anesthesia you probably won't be able to do skin-to-skin in the operating room because you'll be sound asleep. But your partner can! Understanding what you really want, choosing it and being flexible enough to negotiate is where your happy birth experience lives.

 At the end of the day, this is surgery. And the last thing you want is to risk the sterility of the operating room and get a post-op infection in your wound. There’s nothing worse than recovering from your birth, without your baby in the Intensive Care Unit.

Insider Tip:

Start talking about it with your doctor now, while you’re still pregnant.

Ask if you can have a prenatal consultation with the anaesthetist because that’s who’s truly in charge of the operating room.

Start planting the seeds early and just remember- not all hospitals are going to be on board. If it’s really, really important to you, you can get a second opinion or even look for a different hospital.

Gentle cesareans are becoming more and more popular and our free birth plan template is the first step to feeling like you're driving your birth, not just riding along as a passenger. This is a time you'll remember forever, Mama. 

WHERE TO GO NEXT:  EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RECOVERING FROM YOUR CESAREAN

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