Home birth and birth center plan: the transfer plan is the plan
A plan for a home birth or a birth center birth is mostly logistics, because the preferences part is usually already settled with your midwife: you chose the setting for the room, the movement, the water and the people. What the plan has to carry is the part that is not settled, which is what happens if you transfer to a hospital, who does what, and how a page written for a living room still works in a labor and delivery unit. Choosing the setting itself is a conversation with your care team; this guide starts after it.
Start from the one-page template
The free template works for a home or birth center birth; the sections below are what to add.
Download the template (PDF) Or let the free generator ask youAsk your midwife
- What is the transfer arrangement: which hospital, how we get there, who calls ahead, who comes with us?
- What are the reasons you would recommend a transfer before, during or after the birth, and how would you tell us?
- How long does a transfer take from here, at night, in traffic?
- What happens to the plan at the hospital? Does my midwife stay, and in what role?
- What do you bring, and what do you want us to have ready at home or to bring to the center?
- When do you want to be called, in your words? When do you come?
- Who is your backup if you are at another birth, and have we met them?
- For a birth center: how long do we stay afterwards, and what does going home look like?
- What newborn care, medications and screening do you provide, and what happens with the pediatrician?
What to add to the plan
The transfer section
Write it as logistics, not as fear. Which hospital. Who rides with you and who follows with the bags. Who calls ahead, and who has the midwife's number. Who takes the other children, and where they go if it is the middle of the night. One sentence for the hospital staff: "this page was written for a home birth; everything on it still applies where it can, and the decision-making section applies everywhere." Then the cesarean block, four lines, calmly, the same as any plan; the cesarean birth plan has it.
Who is in the house, and what each person does
A home birth often has more people than a hospital room: the midwife and an assistant, a partner, sometimes a doula, a family member, a sibling-sitter. Name them, give each a job, and decide who is the one person who asks the midwife questions if something changes, so three people are not asking at once. Decide where the older children are during the birth and who is responsible for them, with a backup.
The house itself
The room, the water (a pool or the tub, and who fills it), where the midwife sets up, protection for floors and the bed, towels, light and sound, the thermostat, the pets. Your midwife will give you a supply list; the plan is where you record who does each of these things and when.
Call and go, in reverse
In a hospital birth, the call-and-go moment is when you leave. At home, it is when you call the midwife, and the plan should carry her exact words about when to call, plus the backup midwife's number and the transfer hospital's. For a birth center, the plan carries the center's call instructions and the drive.
The first hours and days
At home there is no nursery and no night nurse; the first night is yours. Who does what in the first 72 hours, who stays, the midwife's visit schedule, the pediatrician plan, and the list of things the midwife told you to watch for in you and the baby, with the number to call. Write that list in her words on the fridge card.
The partner's job in an out-of-hospital birth
Bigger than usual. The partner is often the one who fills the pool, keeps the house warm, manages the siblings and the pets, calls the midwife, and, if there is a transfer, drives or rides and carries the plan into a building where nobody knows you. Their one-pager should have the transfer route, the hospital's address and parking, the midwife's and backup's numbers, and the sibling handoff, on top of the usual comfort measures and questions. Practice the transfer logistics once, including the drive at night.
What stays the same
Your preferences for the birth itself (positions, who catches, cord clamping, skin to skin, feeding) and for your baby (newborn medications and screening as decided or to discuss, the pediatrician plan) go on the plan as they would anywhere. The one-page template covers them.
The planner has a home and birth center path
Choose home or birth center and the planner skips the hospital logistics and asks for the transfer plan and the people instead, then prints the midwife's numbers and the transfer hospital on your call-and-go card and fridge card. No account; answers stay on your device.
Open the free planner See a filled-in birth center planQuestions people ask
Do I need a birth plan for a home birth?
You need a plan for the parts that are not already settled with your midwife: the transfer arrangement, who does what in the house, the siblings and pets, the call instructions, and the first days. The preferences part is usually short because the setting was the choice.
What should a home birth transfer plan include?
The hospital, how you get there, who rides with you and who follows, who calls ahead, who has the children, the midwife's and backup's numbers, one sentence for hospital staff about the plan still applying, and the cesarean block.
Does a birth center birth need a different plan from a home birth?
Mostly the same, with the drive to the center in place of the house setup, and the center's own transfer arrangement and stay length written in. The example plans page has a filled-in birth center plan.
Where do I find out whether a home birth is right for me?
From your care team, about your own situation. This guide starts after that decision and is about organizing the logistics; it does not weigh in on the choice of setting.