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The BRAIN Acronym for Childbirth

The BRAIN Acronym can help you make informed decisions for your childbirth experience and beyond. It is a powerful tool to prepare and plan for any event including your pregnancy, birth and parenting.

What does the acronym stand for?

The word “BRAIN” in this context is an acronym that stands for several key factors:

Benefit: Consider the potential advantages and gains that can be obtained from a particular decision. Assess the positive outcomes and how they align with your goals and objectives.

Risks: Take into account the potential risks and drawbacks associated with the decision. Identify and evaluate any potential negative consequences and assess their impact.

Alternatives: Explore and analyze alternative options. Consider different approaches or solutions that might achieve similar or even better results.

Intuition: What is your gut telling you? How do you feel about each of the options?

Nothing/Necessity: Determine the necessity and urgency of making the decision. Evaluate whether it is crucial to act promptly or if it allows for further consideration and evaluation. What happens if we/I do nothing? Have we/I got time to sleep on it?

By using the brain acronym as a decision-making tool you can ensure that your decisions are well-considered, comprehensive, and aligned with your goals and objectives as well as your individual preferences.

Download my Informed Consent Handout here.

How can I use the BRAIN Acronym for Childbirth?

Here is one example of how you may use the BRAIN tool for you birth planning/decision-making:

Example – Induction of labour

Benefits

  • A method of bringing on the labour when your baby needs to be born soon(er) due to risk to them or you. NOTE: induction of labour often takes more than one day!
  • The baby can be born at a time when specialist attention and facilities are available. For example, paediatrician for ‘at-risk’ babies.
  • Social reasons: being able to “control” the time/date of birth a little more and being able to plan childcare etc around it a little better. NOTE: induction of labour often takes more than one day!

Risks

  • Unless your body is ready to birth, the progress will be slow. It can take several days to start working and you may need a Caesarean Birth if the induction process doesn’t proof efficient
  • Partners are not always “allowed” to stay for the whole duration of the induction process. Often they can only be there during the official or slightly extended visiting hours. So you may be “on your own” for a while.
  • It can be very uncomfortable for quite some time and you may need more pain relief compared to a spontaneous onset of labour.
  • Higher likelihood of an instrumental birth using a vacuum or forceps. As a result of increased use of epidural.
  • Increased risk of above-average blood loss.
  • Overstimulation of the uterus, increasing the risk of causing stress to you and baby
  • Overriding of your body’s natural production of oxytocin (the hormone of love, labour and lactation). This results in decreased release of your natural oxytocin in response to your baby suckling at the breast. Furthermore, this can lead to difficulty establishing lactation in the first few days postpartum.

Alternatives

  • Natural induction methods such as – nipple stimulation, spicy food, eating dates, hypnosis or acupuncture.
  • Caesarean birth
  • Increased monitoring of the baby and wait on spontaneous labour

Intuition

How does the thought of having an induction make you feel? Are you comfortable with this option?

Nothing

What happens if I do nothing and just wait? Depending on the reason(s) why an induction is offered to you the risks can vary. Ask your healthcare provider about your specific risks to you and your baby. Find out how much time you have got to think about it. Is this an emergency? Can we get a second opinion and/or sleep on it? Ask the question “What happens if we wait?”.

When creating your birth plan or making other decisions, remember to ask the questions. And importantly use your BRAIN decision making tool to make informed decisions and choices which are right for you and your childbirth experience!

Recommended products

Sources and Further Reading
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Pricing yourself and your business

Pricing yourself and your business - birth worker, doula, antenatal teacher

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5 must-haves for every antenatal educator

5 must-haves for every antenatal educator include visual and tactile learning aids to encourage active engagement and participation and promote the retention of information.

Pelvis model

A pelvis model to explain the mechanics of childbirth and explore beneficial positions for labour and birth. I like to pass the pelvis model round in the class. Asking parents to point out things they notice and why they might find that upright positions can be helpful for the birthing process.

Uterus model

A uterus model to explain how the uterus works. A knitted uterus and a soft ball works really well for this, however some educators also use a balloon and ping pong ball. The soft ball I use is one like this (amazon affiliate link!).

Placenta model

A placenta model to explain how the placenta works and what happens during the third stage of labour. It is also a useful discussion prompt for what to do with your placenta after the birth.

Childbirth Timeline

A timeline of labour to explore what happens when and how to support the birth process. You can either use a timeline banner, a beadline or create your own. These also work really well to explore induction and augmentation of labour, the birth partner’s role etc. I tend to use more than one type of timeline to help stress that every labour and birth experience is unique! See my other blogpost for teaching ideas using your labour and birth timelines. To create your own childbirth timelines, I have seen birthworkers draw one on the back of a roll of wallpaper and I have also seen some very impressive and intricate work in fabric! If you have made your own timelines, please share your pictures! I’d love to see yours!

Positions for labour and childbirth images

Positions for labour & birth images. These could be either photos or drawings like my childbirth positions cards or it could be a poster.

These are my top 5 must-haves as a perinatal educator & doula. What are your top 5s you cannot facilitate without?