Creating an Adoption Hospital Birth Plan as a Birth Mother: 5 Questions to Consider Before Delivery

Generally speaking, most pregnant women make up some sort of birth plan for the hospital. When the contractions start, you may not be in the right headspace to make snap decisions. Adoption Choices of Kansas can help you lay out a plan for labor and delivery that can eliminate an enormous amount of stress so you can focus on bringing a healthy bundle of joy into this world. Birth plans, also referred to as hospital plans, may look a little different for birth mothers choosing adoption, and there are some unique but important items you should have on your checklist.

Before you can welcome your baby into this world, there are a few things that you should consider as part of your adoption hospital birth plan. Aside from making sure a bag is packed to grab-and-go, there may be some checklist items you haven’t thought about.

1. Who’s Going to be There? 

Who in your support system do you want to be there with you when you go into the delivery room? You may want a partner or spouse, parent, friend, or even the adoptive parents there with you for moral support and witness the birth. If you don’t want anyone besides the doctor and nurses in the room, that’s okay too! Making a list of who you do and do not wish to be there for the delivery is important.

2. How Involved do You want Your Child’s Adoptive Family to be?

Depending on the type of adoption you’ve agreed on, you should think about the adoptive parent’s role in your birth plan. If you’ve chosen your child’s adoptive family, you should decide where you want them when you go into labor and give birth. You can choose to have them at the hospital,  waiting at home for the call after delivery, or in the hospital room with you. It’s up to you, but be sure to communicate your wishes with your adoption caseworker and the adoptive parents ahead of time to ensure a happy ending for everyone.

3. Do You want Contact with Your Baby after Birth? 

Do you want any immediate contact with your baby after you’ve given birth? For instance, if you’ve chosen a closed adoption, you may not want to see or have contact with your baby after birth. But if you do want time with him or her, you can choose to hold them, feed them, and spend some alone time with them. Again, it’s up to you, and making a choice ahead of time might make it easier among the flood of emotions.

4. Do You want to Name Your Baby?

There are a couple of ways to approach the naming process, depending on the adoption agreement you have with the adoptive parents. You could agree upon a name or decide to split up who chooses the first and middle name. If you want to name your baby separately, you can write the name you picked out on the Original Birth Certificate, and the adoptive parents can write their name on the Amended Birth Certificate.

5. Are There any Special Moments You want to Capture in the Hospital? 

You may want to take home some mementos to remember the birth. Even in a fully open adoption, keeping a hospital bracelet or getting some photos of you, your baby and maybe a group picture of everyone might be a nice way to work through your grieving process. If this sounds like something you’d like to have, communicate this ahead of time with your adoption caseworker and then with your child’s adoptive family so there are no disagreements or confusion on the day of.

6. Other Great Questions to Ask

There are a hundred little things to think about for an adoption hospital birth plan, and there’s most likely going to be something you forget. Some smaller details might be:

• What labor pain medications do you approve of?
• Who will make phone calls or update everyone in the waiting room?
• Who gets to hold the baby first?
• Who will cut the umbilical cord?
• Do you want to leave the hospital before or after your baby?
• What if you need a C-section?
• Do you want videos/photos of the birth?

Creating an Adoption Hospital Birth Plan as a Birth Mother

Being prepared is important for any pregnant mother. Communication is key in making sure the birth goes as smoothly as possible, and your wishes are understood and carried out. Nothing will ever be perfect, but planning can help to avoid surprises and don’t make any rash, emotional, epidural-driven decisions. You don’t have to do this alone. Pregnancy, especially for birth mothers who’ve decided on adoption, is already an emotionally draining process. These definitely won’t be the most challenging decisions you’ve made in the last few months, but they are essential, nonetheless. Adoption Choices of Kansas can help you navigate this next step so you can be assured everything is in place for the big day.

Adoption Choices of Kansas serves birth parents statewide and beyond, please call us or text us to learn more!
Call Us 877-903-4488 or Text Us 316-209-2071

Meet the Author: Michelle Brugioni is a practiced, well-versed college-educated writer and avid coffee drinker. She has ten years’ experience as a freelance writer, and has written for an alarmingly wide range of clients and publications. She has written on topics like: life science, biopharmaceutical company acquisitions, dealing with anxiety, and creative drinking games.

As a fearless writer and masterful researcher, each time Michelle is approached with the question, “Can you write this?” she responds confidently with, “When do you need it?”