What To Put In A VBAC Birth Plan (And What Most People Leave Out)
A VBAC birth plan is one of the most useful things you can prepare in pregnancy. Not because it controls what happens but because the process of writing it helps you get genuinely clear on what matters to you. And going into labour with a clear framework, rather than a collection of half-formed hopes, makes a real difference to how you experience whatever unfolds.
This post covers what a good VBAC birth plan should include, what tends to get left out and why planning for every possible outcome is more empowering than planning only for the birth you're hoping for.
Why A VBAC Birth Plan Is Different
A standard birth plan tends to focus on preferences for a straightforward labour; pain relief, environment, who's in the room. A VBAC birth plan needs to cover all of that and more because a VBAC pregnancy typically involves additional clinical decisions, more appointment conversations and more specific monitoring preferences than a first birth or a planned repeat caesarean.
It also carries more emotional weight. You're writing this plan while holding a previous birth experience and probably some version of the fear that this one might go the same way. A good VBAC birth plan acknowledges that honestly, rather than pretending the previous experience didn't happen.
What To Include: The Basics
These are the foundations that any birth plan should cover, adapted specifically for a VBAC context:
Monitoring preferences VBAC labours in the UK are typically managed with continuous foetal monitoring (CTG). Your plan should reflect whether you understand this, whether you've discussed any alternatives with your consultant and what you'd want to happen if monitoring becomes restrictive to your movement or comfort. If you've discussed intermittent monitoring and this is what you’d prefer, your birth plan should explicitly state this.
Pain relief What are you open to, and in what order? An epidural, for example, may affect your ability to move around, which some VBAC families want to avoid. Being clear about your preferences and the order in which you'd like options offered, avoids a situation where you're making these decisions from scratch during active labour.
Environment and comfort Lighting, noise, who is present, access to a pool or birth ball, freedom of movement. These might feel minor but they matter, particularly for neurodivergent birthing people for whom the sensory environment of the labour room can significantly affect their ability to cope and communicate.
Who is with you Your birth partner, a doula, or both. Be explicit about who you want present and what their role is.
What Most People Leave Out
This is where VBAC birth plans most often fall short; not in what they include for the ideal birth but in what they leave out for everything else.
Preferences if labour slows or stalls What do you want to happen if your labour isn't progressing? What information do you want before any augmentation is recommended? Are there specific interventions you want to discuss before agreeing to? Having this written down means the conversation can be calm and informed rather than happening under pressure.
Preferences if a caesarean becomes necessary This is the section most people avoid writing because it feels like inviting the outcome in. It isn't. A caesarean preference section in your birth plan doesn't mean you expect a caesarean. It means that if one becomes necessary, you've already thought about what matters to you in that situation.
This might include: who you want in the theatre, whether you'd like the screen lowered for the birth if possible, skin-to-skin in theatre or recovery, delayed cord clamping, how you want to be spoken to and what information you want and when. A birth that ends in an unplanned caesarean doesn't have to be one where you felt out of control and a detailed preference section helps protect that even when plans change.
How you want information communicated If things shift during labour, how do you want to be told? Do you want full detail immediately or a moment to absorb before the next piece of information? Do you want your birth partner included in clinical conversations or do you want to hear things first? This is especially important for neurodivergent birthing people who may find unexpected information harder to process in the moment.
What you'd want your birth partner or doula to do If you're overwhelmed, if you're being pressured toward a decision, if you've lost track of your preferences, what do you want them to do? Naming this in advance means they have a clear brief rather than having to guess under pressure.
A Section For Your Previous Birth
Many VBAC birth plans skip this entirely. It's worth including a brief, factual summary of your previous birth, not as a complaint, but as context. Your care team changes shift. The midwife who comes on at 2am won't have read your notes as thoroughly as your primary midwife. A short paragraph that says "my previous birth ended in an emergency caesarean following [X], I found [Y] difficult and what helped was [Z]" gives whoever is in the room with you the most important context immediately, without you having to find words for it during labour.
If You're Neurodivergent, This Section Matters Particularly
A birth plan is an opportunity to communicate how you process information and what you need from your care team in writing, in advance, when you have time and capacity to get it right. That's genuinely valuable for neurodivergent birthing people who know from experience that expressing those needs in a clinical environment under pressure is much harder than writing them down calmly beforehand.
Consider including:
How you communicate when you're overwhelmed? Do you go quiet, become very still, struggle to make eye contact, use fewer words?
What helps you feel grounded? Physical touch, a specific person's voice, being left alone for a moment, a particular comfort item
What makes things worse? Certain phrases, sudden changes without warning, too many people talking at once
Any sensory needs around the environment? Lighting, noise, monitoring equipment, how examinations are approached
Your midwife and care team cannot meet needs they don't know about. A birth plan is the clearest way to tell them.
How Long Should A VBAC Birth Plan Be?
Long enough to cover all of the above, typically one to two pages of clearly formatted text. Bullet points and short sections work better than prose in a birth plan because they're readable at a glance by a care team under pressure. Your name and due date should be at the top and it should be clearly dated so it's obvious it's the current version.
Keep a copy in your hospital bag, make sure your birth partner has one and consider emailing a copy to your community midwife before your due date so it's attached to your notes.
If writing a birth plan this long feels overwhelming, you can always write separate ones. I recommend that my clients write at least two, depending on the birth they’re planning. They have an ideal birth plan, usually on labour ward or at home, and then they have a theatre birth plan which covers assisted delivery or a caesarean. If my client is planning a home birth, I then also recommend a labour ward plan in case of transfer.
These extra birth plans are usually looked after by their partner or me and they’re only brought out if that scenario looks likely.
In Short
A good VBAC birth plan covers your preferences for the birth you're hoping for and for every other realistic outcome. The sections most people leave out; what happens if labour stalls, what you'd want if a caesarean becomes necessary, how you want information communicated are often the most important ones. Writing them doesn't invite those outcomes. It means you're prepared for them, which is a completely different thing.
If you'd like help working through your VBAC birth plan, that's something we can do together in antenatal sessions. Get in touch or read more about ND & VBAC Preparation and Birth Doula Support.
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