Tips for Effective Communication with Your Doctor During Labor

If you are searching for tips on how to communicate effectively with your care providers during labor, then you have come to the right place. My experience has taught me that for best communication with your doctor during labor you need to have an established relationship. Begin as early as possible during your pregnancy.

Take the time to get to know your doctor. Ask your health care provider questions and take notes. Ask friends and family to share their labor experiences with you, again I recommend taking notes. Research the Internet, read magazines and take notes. Then take all of your notes and read them. Think about what you will be most comfortable with, talk to your partner and find out what they are comfortable with. Plan what would be the optimal labor for you and your partner, then write it down. Consider possible alternatives and write them down also.

Next take your plans to your health care provider and discuss them. Ask about them about emergency situations and discuss options, take notes. After discussing the information with your partner draw up a final draft. This is your birth plan and it is designed to communicate your wishes for labor. Take a copy to your doctor and they can send a copy of it with your prenatal information to the hospital. In addition to that copy, keep a copy with your insurance information for just in case.

Some people develop a code word to be used if changes in the plan are desired. For example, a woman who desires to have no anesthesia during labor may change her mind if labor is too painful or progresses too slowly. She establishes prior to labor that if she says the word "mars" then her partner and doctor will know if she changes her mind.

Truly effective communication during labor takes place when the patient has a good rapport with her doctor, a birth plan is developed and followed, or early in the labor. Remember no matter how well you communicate with your care provider, an emergency situation may arise where are your plans are cast aside in the interest of safety, yours-your baby's-or both.

I remember as a labor nurse the first patients with birth plans I had. I dreaded them but after experiencing labor with these patients I realized they had cared enough to take the time to research and ask questions and think about what they wanted and then to write it down. These patients typically had the well established relationship with their care provider and had the most positive labor experiences.