How to Make Confident Choices in Pregnancy: A Guide to Informed Consent
If you’ve ever felt intimidated, anxious or forgetful sitting in your doctor’s office, you’re not alone. As you belly grows, thoughts, worries and plans can leave you feeling scattered.
Learn how to make informed decisions - long before you go into labor
During pregnancy, you’ll want to ask questions, clear up confusion and get all the information you need to make an informed decision. As a mom, this is one of your first responsibilities.
My clients use a simple technique to help them with this. You can too.
Visiting your doctor or midwife
This practice keeps you informed, calm and clear as you prepare for labor and birth. It also helps you begin to trust your intuition, one of your key superpowers.
Jot down any questions that come up between visits.
Before your next appointment, review and prioritize your questions.
Bring a revised list with you to the visit. Write it down!
At the start of your visit, acknowledge your limited time and let your provider know you have questions.
Some key phrases to keep in mind: “Can you clarify?” and “What does that mean exactly?”
The Power of Practice
This practice is simple but it’s powerful for a few reasons. It helps you:
Establish authority and agency - two areas that can easily be ignored in our maternity care system.
Practice advocating for yourself and your baby.
Learn to embody this practice, so you can be in control during labor.
What’s Informed Consent?
You’ll have many decisions to make along the way. You have the right to understand, ask and choose what feels best for your body and your baby. It’s your right and responsibility to make informed decisions.
When any ‘choice’ is presented, ask these top 4 questions:
What are the benefits?
What are the risks?
What are the alternatives?
What if I do nothing?
Even if labor and birth don’t go the way you envision, you can still have an empowered experience. As long as you get all the information you need, without feeling pressured or intimidated, then you can make the right decision(s) - from a place of calm, clarity and control. Feeling in control is a key factor for a positive birth.
Remember these 4 questions when presented with a choice.
What Informed Consent Is not
There’s a power imbalance inherent in the maternity system and sometimes, what’s presented as routine protocol is actually a choice for you to make. This can easily be overlooked because it’s subtle and embedded in the system.
A doula can help you navigate the medical environment so you can make informed decisions, with awareness and confidence.
Informed consent is not simply when your doctor, midwife or nurse tells you in advance, what they’re going to do. You need to agree, otherwise it’s not consent. Without consent, it’s obstetric violence.
Informed Consent v. Right to Refuse
Most of us have been conditioned to say “yes” to our medical providers, trusting their training and expertise. However, you’re the expert when it comes to you and your baby, and your intuition will guide you.
Your intuition is powerful. Almost as powerful as your love.
Take my client, for example, whose doctor kept cueing her during the pushing stage- until she, intuitively, knew she’d need to birth by cesarean.
You have the right to refuse. Always.
Consent in All Environments
Motherhood begins long before your baby is born. It’s one decision and one breath, at a time.
As you move through this sacred period, be mindful of the research and medical advice you’re receiving as well as your personal values. Trust that you know what’s best for you and your baby.
Learning how to make informed decisions empowers your labor and birth, helping to prevent pain, trauma and disappointment.
It also gives you confidence and trust in yourself as a mother.
You deserve to have a positive experience. To get in the habit of asking questions, get my “Your Empowered Pregnancy Questions Guide”. It’s FREE.
Don’t wait. Click the button below to get your guide today.