Planning Your Golden Hour: A Workbook for Birth and Immediate Postpartum Preparation

Understanding the golden hour is different from actually planning for it. What specifically will you include in your birth plan? How will you brief your birth partner? What do you want to say to the nurse who arrives to take the newborn for weighing? The gap between knowledge and preparation is where many parents find themselves unprepared at the moment that matters most. By the end of this course you will be able to complete a golden hour preference worksheet, draft the relevant section of your birth plan, brief your birth partner on their specific role in the first hour, prepare a short statement for your care team about your skin-to-skin intentions, and plan a contingency approach for scenarios where immediate skin-to-skin is not possible. What you will learn: - How to use the preference-clarification worksheet to identify your specific golden hour priorities before writing anything formal - A birth plan section template for the immediate postpartum period, with model language for skin-to-skin, delayed cord clamping, newborn procedures, and breastfeeding support - How to communicate with hospital staff about your preferences without creating adversarial dynamics — including worked script examples - A partner briefing guide covering what to observe, what to communicate, and how to facilitate skin-to-skin when the birthing parent needs support - Planning for the cesarean golden hour: what to request in advance, what to prepare the partner to do, and what the hospital's capacity typically looks like - A contingency worksheet for scenarios where immediate skin-to-skin is delayed: early skin-to-skin with the partner, when to begin, and how to transition the baby to the birthing parent as soon as possible - How to include the golden hour in a conversation with your pediatric provider before birth to understand their specific practices - A post-birth reflection prompt to help you process what happened and what you want to remember The course moves sequentially through the planning process. You complete the preference worksheet first, then draft the birth plan section, then work through the partner briefing guide. The cesarean and contingency sections follow, each with their own planning templates. The course closes with a provider conversation preparation guide and the postpartum reflection prompt. This course is designed for expecting parents in the second or third trimester who want to plan for the first hour after birth. No prior preparation on this topic is required. Please discuss your specific intentions with your obstetric and pediatric care team, as institutional policies and clinical circumstances vary.