The NHS is moving towards personalised care and support plans for all everyone, for all conditions. In maternity care, this means you have more say over how you are looked after. Your care providers will take the time to understand what is important to you. Your personalised care plan may be recorded in your paper notes, in a separate document, or within your digital maternity record (if provided).
Personalised Care and Support Planning in Maternity Services - YouTube
You can choose where to go for your maternity care. You do not have to receive your care from your local trust. You can also request a change of midwife if you have concerns, through the community midwives’ office.
Your care provider will take the time to understand your preferences and work with your as a team. You will be supported to make the best decision for you with all the information and resources you need. Your choices will be support regardless of whether they are in line with the professional recommendations or are outside general guidelines.
Your care providers will take the time to understand and record the experiences and outcomes that are important to you during your maternity journey. This can include experiences you wish to avoid, or personal health goals you wish to be supported to reach.
Your personalised care plan will include a record of all the conversations and appointments where care providers have formally discussed and agreed your care with you.
Your personalised care plan will be reviewed at each appointment. You are also able to view your personalised care plan at any time.
Birth Planning
Setting out your birth preferences is an important step in preparing yourself and discovering what’s important to you when it comes to meeting your newest family member. You might feel like you don’t even know what you don’t know about giving birth - even if it’s not your first time.
It makes sense to talk about birth preferences rather than a birth plan. If you are someone who likes to plan in detail, one plan will not cover everything when it comes to birth - you’ll need a plan A, plan B and perhaps plan C too. If you plan for a caesarean, what is your preference if you go into labour before the date? If you plan to labour, what is your pain relief preference if you are offered a hormone drip for slow progress?
You might be someone who likes to go with the flow, in which case your birth preference will be to follow recommendations from the care providers with you at the time. If that is you, it is still recommended to understand some of the decisions you will be faced with during birth, because once things are underway, it is much harder to consider new information.
Taking time to read, think and explore your options puts you in control of decisions, and evidence shows us that control means better birth experiences. This is true regardless of whether birth goes according to plan A.
Where you plan to birth affects the type of birth, you’re more likely to experience. The pain relief on offer depends on the setting.
Of course, as well as choosing the setting, there is the question of who to involve. Having a birth partner who is well prepared to support you can have a direct impact on your ability to relax and birth.
Once these big decisions are made, there are lots of smaller decisions for you to make. Antenatal education can be really helpful to inform your birth preferences.
NHS.uk provides a birth planning guide and template with lots of items to consider. You can bring any questions to your midwife appointments as you develop your birth preferences.