Labor, Birth & Postpartum

How to Write a Birth Plan: Template, Examples and What to Include

By the Find Her Doctor editorial team · Updated November 1, 2026 · 6 min read

A birth plan is a short written list of your preferences for labor, birth and the first hours with your baby. Writing one helps you learn your options ahead of time and tells your care team what matters to you. Keep it to one page, use bullet points, and go over it with your OB/GYN or midwife before about 36 weeks.

Here's the honest version of how birth plans get used: a labor nurse coming on shift at 7 p.m. has maybe 30 seconds to skim it. The ones that work are short, kind and put the top three wishes first. The ones that don't are three pages of "do not" in bold.

What a birth plan is really for

Less about controlling every detail, more about:

• Learning your options while you can still think clearly, not between contractions
• Starting a conversation with your provider about their usual practices and your hospital's policies
• Giving your support people a script so they can speak up for you
• Feeling prepared, even if things change

It's a list of preferences, not a contract. Labor is unpredictable, and the most useful line on many plans is the one that says, "If plans change, please explain our options so we can decide together."

The checklist: what to include

Go through these and keep only what matters to you.

1. The basics

• Your name, your provider, and where you plan to give birth
• Your support people (partner, doula, family member)
• Health information: allergies, health conditions, GBS status if known, prior births
• Anything your team should know: a history of trauma, your preferred language, religious or cultural practices

If you need an interpreter, put it at the top. New York hospitals must provide free interpreters, and writing it down means you won't have to ask at 4 a.m.

2. Labor environment

• Lighting, music, limits on visitors
• Wearing your own clothes
• Fewer cervical exams, if possible
• Students or trainees in the room (yes or no). This comes up a lot at teaching hospitals in Manhattan and the Bronx.

3. Moving, eating and monitoring

• Freedom to walk, change positions, use a birth ball or the shower
• A tub, if your hospital has one
• Light snacks or clear fluids, as your provider allows
• Intermittent monitoring if you're low-risk, or wireless monitoring if you need continuous monitoring

ACOG supports many of these lower-intervention options for healthy people with low-risk pregnancies, including spending early labor at home, listening to the baby's heartbeat intermittently, and changing positions often.

4. Pain relief

Pick a general approach and write it in one line:

• "I plan to have an epidural; please offer it when I ask."
• "I'd like to try without medication. Please don't offer pain medicine unless I ask."
• "I'm open to options and will decide in labor."

The third one is the most common, and it's a perfectly good plan. Compare choices in labor pain relief options.

5. Interventions

Write your preferences, and ask your provider what they'd recommend for you:

• Induction (if offered, and which methods)
• Breaking the water
• Oxytocin (Pitocin) to strengthen contractions
• Episiotomy (cutting the opening of the vagina), which is no longer routinely recommended

A line many people find useful: "Unless it's an emergency, please explain any recommended intervention and give us a few minutes to talk."

6. Pushing and birth

• Positions to try (side-lying, hands and knees, squatting, semi-sitting)
• Pushing when you feel the urge vs. coached pushing
• Warm compresses on the perineum
• A mirror, or touching the baby's head as it crowns
• Who announces the sex, if you don't already know
• Who cuts the cord

7. Right after birth

• Immediate skin-to-skin contact
• Delayed cord clamping. ACOG recommends waiting at least 30 to 60 seconds in healthy term babies.
• Cord blood banking or donation (this needs to be arranged weeks ahead, not on the day)
• Keeping the placenta
• Feeding: breastfeeding, formula or both, and whether you want a lactation consultant to visit

8. Newborn care

• Vitamin K shot, eye ointment and hepatitis B vaccine. These are standard, recommended treatments, and New York law requires eye prophylaxis for newborns. Talk with your provider and your baby's pediatrician if you have questions.
• Delaying the first bath
• Rooming-in
• Pacifier use
• Circumcision, if it applies

9. If you need a cesarean

• Your support person with you in the operating room
• A clear drape, or lowering the drape to see the birth
• Skin-to-skin in the OR if you and the baby are stable
• Your partner doing skin-to-skin if you can't

A sample one-page plan

Name: ___ | Due date: ___ | Provider: ___ | Hospital: ___ Support: my partner and our doula Health notes: GBS negative. No allergies. Top 3 wishes: move freely, delayed cord clamping, immediate skin-to-skin. Labor: I'd like to use the shower and birth ball. Dim lights, please. Pain relief: I'll try without medication at first and will ask if I want an epidural. Interventions: Please explain any recommendation and give us a minute to talk if it isn't an emergency. Birth: I'd like to push in different positions. Warm compresses, please. After birth: Breastfeeding with lactation support. Cesarean: Partner present, skin-to-skin in the OR if possible.

Writing tips

• One page. Bullets, not paragraphs.
• Positive phrasing: "I'd like…" lands better than "Do not…"
• Top three first. If the nurse reads nothing else, what should she know?
• Build in flexibility. Add the "if plans change" line.
• Share it with your partner and doula ahead of time, so they're not reading it for the first time in triage.

Scheduled births need plans too. For an induction, list preferences for ripening methods, moving around in the early phase and when you'd like an epidural; inductions can take a day or more, so plan for comfort (phone charger, snacks for your partner). For a planned cesarean, you can ask about music, lowering the drape, skin-to-skin in the OR, delayed cord clamping if possible and feeding support in recovery. Ask which of these your hospital offers.

Talking it over with your provider

Bring it to a prenatal visit around 32 to 36 weeks and ask:

• Is anything here not possible at my hospital or birth center?
• Is there anything you'd recommend differently for me?
• How many support people can be with me? Does a doula count?
• What happens if I need an induction or a cesarean?

Bring a few printed copies to the hospital, and upload one to your patient portal if your hospital allows it. If you're on New York Medicaid, doula care is a covered benefit, and a doula can help you write and use your plan; see what a doula does.

When to call your provider

While you're planning, call your OB/GYN or midwife, or go to labor and delivery, if you have:

• Bleeding heavier than spotting
• Your water breaks
• Less movement from your baby than usual
• A severe headache or vision changes
• Regular contractions before 37 weeks

Learn the early signs of labor so you know when to head in.

If your provider or hospital can't support the things that matter most to you, it's okay to look elsewhere, even in the third trimester. Search the directory for OB/GYNs and midwives in your borough or county.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• ACOG — Approaches to Limit Intervention During Labor and Birth (Committee Opinion 766)
• ACOG — Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping After Birth (Committee Opinion 814)
• ACOG — How to Tell When Labor Begins (Patient FAQ)
• Office on Women's Health (HHS) — Labor and birth
• AAP — Controversies Concerning Vitamin K and the Newborn (Policy Statement)

This article is for general education and is not medical advice. It does not replace an evaluation by a licensed clinician who knows your history. If you think you have a medical emergency, call 911.