Your Birth Plan: A Guide to Navigating All of Your Choices in Childbirth

by Megan Davidson

There is no right way or best way to give birth, but if you’re pregnant, you’re likely already hearing advice and stories about what you should do, how you should feel, and what you should want from your birth experience. Your Birth Plan is an it’s a birth book that equally honors all paths and all pregnant people, guiding and empowering you to make informed decisions, without judgment or prescription, for your own positive birth experience.

Long on information, short on opinions, Your Birth Plan is a how-to guide filled with practical descriptions, insights, stories and tips to make it easier for you to pick where, with whom, and in what way you would like to give birth. Your Birth Plan is comprehensive and free from judgment and prescriptions. It offers unbiased information about all birthing options, including birthing in a hospital, at home, or in a birthing center; having an epidural or an unmedicated birth; induction of labor; vaginal or Cesarean birth; and more. This is a new, inspiring, inclusive, and much-needed guide to help you plan for a birth where you are empowered to make your own choices and to have your needs met, whatever they are.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2019

About the author

Megan Davidson, PhD is one of the most experienced doulas in the country, having supported nearly 600 families in birth and over 1200 families postpartum. She is certified as a labor doula, a childbirth educator, and as a chest/breastfeeding counselor, and she is the mother of two.

Megan is also the author of Experts in Birth: How Doulas Improve Outcomes for Birthing Women and Their Babies (in Doulas and Intimate Labour: Boundaries, Bodies and Birth) and the co-author, with Sarah Lewin, of: Eating for Two: The Threat and Fear of Fatness in Pregnancy (in Heavy Burdens: Stories of Motherhood and Fatness) and Dangerous Bodies: Imagining, Monitoring, & Managing Fatness During Pregnancy (in Bearing the Weight of the World: Exploring Maternal Embodiment). She won the Sylvia Rivera Award for her popular essay “Seeking Refuge Under the Umbrella: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Organizing within the Category Transgender”.

Megan lives in Brooklyn, NY with her family.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a helpful and non-judgmental guide to navigating the various choices facing a pregnant person about where/how/with whom to give birth. Without advocating for any particular approach, the author (an experienced doula in NYC) lays out various options, bringing each alive in vivid color with lengthy personal narratives from her clients and relevant data. Her aim throughout is to empower you to have a positive birth experience, whatever that may look like for you (hospital/birthing center/home, medicated/unmedicated, etc.). This book might be particularly helpful to those in large cities faced with an abundance of choice about birthing options, trying to imagine what type of birth they desire, and wondering how they should arrange their care to try to get there. Each chapter ends on an extremely practical note: with a list of important questions to ask caregivers of all types.

This will be my new pregnancy gift for all my friends!

[Ariel Lovewell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the approach of this whole book is fundamentally non judgemental which is perhaps what some situations need, but I just found it less informative. Need more thorough analyses on possible risks for interventions, for instance. There were a lot of sweet but unhelpful visuals taking up space. I found the unnecessary ungendering language distracting. It's a fine resource but there are better ones out there with the same and more thorough information.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book had been out when I was pregnant! It is accessible, full of information, and (what I like the most) free of judgements. It will make a good addition to the pregnancy book collection at the public library where I work.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. It will be released on June 8, 2019.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference about the options to give birth: at home, hospital or birth center. Each option is well described. The is a beautiful gift to provide to any mom to be.


#YourBirthPlan #NetGalley

[kassia horvath · Rating 3 out of 5]

the content was written very well. i liked the statistics throughout. however the language was very off putting. “chest feeding” “laboring person” “pregnant person” to name a few. women give birth and can breast feed. it’s not a matter of opinion, it’s biology. almost felt insulting having these descriptors. i would give the book more stars, but for this reason i had to keep putting it down and coming back to it. i understand the author was trying to be “inclusive” but in reality it felt exclusive toward women. i’m glad it was a rental and i didn’t pay for the book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only all advice was as supportive, non-judgmental, and well-researched as that in this book! Your Birth Plan is a simple but rich guide that any parent- or caregiver-to-be will learn from and find comfort in. Even with my fifth pregnancy, I found much to learn and appreciate in this book. It has become my go-to gift for expecting friends. Highly recommend, especially so for any trans, non-binary, and/or gender expansive folks.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this to expecting parents -- delivers a lot of information in a judgment-free and sensible tone.

[Giang đọc sách · Rating 4 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách với đầy đủ thông tin về quá trình sinh nở, bao gồm những lựa chọn khám bệnh (không phù hợp lắm vì hiện ở Việt Nam phổ biến chỉ có mỗi lựa chọn đẻ ở viện, trong khi ở nhiều nước có thể đẻ ở nhà, nhà hộ sinh(?)), phương pháp sinh (đẻ mổ, đẻ thường), những can thiệp khi sinh (forceps, vaccum, epidural, etc.), thúc đẻ, sinh thường sau khi sinh mổ, những gì cần chuẩn bị khi sinh..

Nói chung sách tập trung vào quá trình sinh nở và khuyến khích cũng nhấn mạnh rằng mẹ bầu có toàn quyền lựa chọn đối với kế hoạch sinh của mình, cho dù có thể có những đánh giá từ xã hội ra sao, nhưng mình là chính mình, mình có quyền đối với việc sinh của mình.

Đọc hơi sợ đấy nhưng không sao, việc có kiến thức với mình là quan trọng. Vì bản thân việc sinh đã là một quá trình với rất nhiều sự kiện ngoài khả năng kiểm soát rồi. Việc có thêm thông tin khiến mình tự tin hơn, cảm thấy kiểm soát được phần nào những gì sắp diễn ra hoặc những gì mình muốn xảy ra (dù ít hay nhiều, còn chính vẫn phải theo chỉ định của bác sĩ). Tuy nhiên, trong sách có vài chương tác giả sẽ nói ngay từ đầu việc đọc tiếp hay không là lựa chọn của mẹ bầu, vì có những phần mô tả kỹ, khá ghê các bạn ah, đọc mà sởn hết da gà huhu

[Cbx · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book focused on empowering pregnant people to have a positive birth experience. It is all about available options, and includes questions to ask yourself and those around you about the process. The book includes a lot of stories recounting different birth experiences and a variety of situations, as well as black and white photos of select aspects of the experience.
If you are looking for a judgment-free discussion, and support of the path that is right for you, this is a great book. Personally, I found a lot of the stories quite touching, and reading about so many different experiences that were all viewed positively was reassuring. That said, there is limited factual information here, and the book is less a reference guide and more of an emotional or mental guide. There is also not that much about complications or navigating medical recommendations, with the emphasis being much more on how to still find peace and satisfaction with your choices and unfolding events even as unexpected situations arise. Definitely helpful in some ways, but may not be what everyone is looking for.

[Clara Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two notes:
1) The first half of this book was irrelevant to me because I already have a doctor and birthing location. This information is something that would have been helpful at the begining of pregnancy, however I would not have selected a book called Birth Plan at that time, as I was only trying to navigate pregnancy and not overwhelm myself with too much information about birth. So maybe a different title would have caused me to select this book earlier.
2) This book does offer information about many of the birthing options however it was surface level and didn't offer me any additional information. I was looking for more information on coping techniques for labor and delivery, and this failed to deliver that.

[Elizabeth Lund]

While I only read a few parts of this book, I appreciated the nonjudgemental tone that covered all scenarios without favoring any one too much, and I felt it actually succeeded in not assuming you are doing this as part of a heterosexual couple, something a lot of books pay lip service to but fall short on. Dense with a LOT of information.

[Charley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly informative, comprehensive, and easy to understand. Very kind, nonjudgmental, and consent-based, and it was one of the very, very few pregnancy books I found that was written in gender-neutral language. I really appreciated the ability to get this information without being misgendered every few sentences.

[N N · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much helpful, practical info that I haven’t come across in any of the other popular / trendy books about pregnancy & delivery. Addresses topics like what’s a birthing center, a midwife, a doula, etc as well as specifics about what to expect in labor and delivery and what kinds of choices you may need to make in the process. Very open minded and informative.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the best of all the pregnancy/labor books that my husband and I read. Megan's style is frank, non-judgmental, helpful, and focused on the details and decisions that actually matter. I'm a little biased because she's our doula, but I'm going to recommend this book to pregnant friends.

My biggest criticism is that the book divides focus on the beginning and end of pregnancy, so there's not an ideal time to read it. A lot of attention is given to choosing a care provider (OB/midwife/doula), then a lot of attention is given to the labor itself and possible complications. I would have appreciated either a more inclusive look at the pregnancy process, or alternately more of a focus on birth exclusively.