Your Birth Plan

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 intervention: 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.

Megan Davidson, PhD, is a labor and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and chest/breastfeeding counselor who supports pregnant people and their families without judgment or prescription. She is one of the most experienced doulas in the US, having attended 600 births and supported 1200 families postpartum. Megan has also published essays on the value of doula support, size bias in prenatal care, and body positive pregnancy. She lives and works in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two kids.

Preface: My birth story
Introduction: birth like that
Section 1: Where should I give birth?
Chapter 1: Choosing your best birth location
Chapter 2: Giving birth in a hospital
Chapter 3: Giving birth in a birth centerChapter 4: Giving birth at home
Section 2: Building your birth team
Chapter 5: Working with a doctor
Chapter 6: Working with a midwife
Chapter 7: Doula support for your birth
Section 3: Giving birth
Chapter 8: Laboring
Chapter 9: Common interventions during labor & childbirth
Chapter 10: Birth plans & labor coping strategies
Section 4: Inductions, VBACs, twins, and Cesarean births
Chapter 11: Induction of labor: when, why, and what you can do to prepare
Chapter 12: Having a vaginal birth after a Cesarean birth
Chapter 13: Giving birth to twins/multiples
Chapter 14: Cesarean birth
Conclusion: birthing unapologetically