Planning for Your Child’s Birth

As you prepare, there are several considerations to discuss with your provider. This includes things like who will be present during your labor & delivery, pain management options, and considerations for comfort during labor.

While the health of the mother and baby is always paramount, Woman’s believes that each woman has the right to play an active role in how she gives birth.  

Each baby is brand new, vastly different from any other person who’s been or ever will be. Each labor, too, is its own, unique event. Now, more than ever before, mothers can choose how they experience labor. Talk to your physician about your birth preferences.

  • Whether a woman chooses to have epidural anesthesia during the birth of her child depends on her individual circumstances.
  • For women who are interested in pursuing the option of a natural or non-medicated labor, the hospital is fully equipped to support that decision.

From a nursing staff that’s been well-trained in birthing methods and pain management techniques, to suites that make a laboring woman feel more comfortable, to a broad range of classes and support networks, Woman’s is a place where mothers-to-be can confidently explore and plan how they would like to have their children. 

Learn about Labor

Learning more about what actually happens during a birth helps mothers decide, for themselves, how they would like to experience the birth of their child. Woman’s labor support classes are recommended for all pregnant patients. Register online now for Preparing for Delivery or Understanding Birth e-Class and Lamaze: A Labor of Love.


Labor Support and Interventions

Talk with your doctor about your labor preferences/birth plan before your due date. Woman’s Labor Preferences Worksheet [pdf] can help you have a plan ready for your delivery. You have options for your labor preferences. We hope our Comfort Menu [pdf] will help you better understand comfort measures for pain relief.

Whatever dreams a woman has for her labor, it’s critical that she remembers she needs to be flexible. The unexpected could arise and plans might have to change, so that mother and baby are safe and healthy. A change in what a woman had hoped to experience in no way means that she has failed or is inadequate.

Hire a Doula

Many women who have their babies at Woman’s choose to hire a doula, to act as a support person while they are in labor and giving birth. A doula is a nonmedical childbirth expert whose job is to offer support, encouragement and information to women who are going through labor. A doula “mothers the mother” and gives her emotional support while she labors.


Make a Birth Plan

Armed with enough facts, a woman can discuss her hopes with her physician to make sure there’s agreement on how labor might take place. Some women may know that they’d prefer to have epidural anesthesia, while others would like to experience labor without medication. At Woman’s, each individual choice is honored and supported.

Talk with your doctor about your labor preferences before your due date to have a plan ready for your delivery. Express your choices by simply talking to your doctor or write them down in a birth plan.

Woman’s also offers expectant mothers the option of meeting with a certified childbirth educator to review their birth plan and answer any questions that they might have prior to their big day. To schedule this appointment, please call us.

Additional Interests

  • Couple at home in labor pain.

    How is pain managed?


    There are a range of options for pain relief in labor including medical and natural pain relief.

  • Nurse comforts patient in labor.

    Emphasis on Mom


    Comfort measures may ease labor pain directly or indirectly by soothing and relaxing you.

  • Doula helps patient with pregnancy.

    “Mothers the Mother”


    If you hire a doula, she will know many comfort measures and usually bring items to help.