Mumsnet Talk

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bin liners work as well.

go to b&q or homebase and buy plastic dustsheets for painting. only a couple of quid and theyre enormous. you can spread them over the wholre room practically and theyre a piece of cake for the MW's to just gather all the mess up in and take it all away leaving you in nice tidy, un-bloodsoaked room with baby... great.

another tip is to fully make up bed twice w plastic sheet in there also, someone can just strip bed for you after and lo; a new set all waiting to go underneath.

homebirths rock. v v civilised

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I was standing up or sort of squatting and we really were not on the bed at all. It would have been a strange position to be on as then you're pushing upwards so I wouldn't worry too much about bed protection. But we have mattress covers on all the mattresses anyway as all 5 children have always wet the bed to about 5 or 7 and I think you can get mattress covers on line from places like Mothercare. They never seem to be strong enough but would be fine just for giving birth.

argos sells them I think

I used a plastic shower curtain from IKEA. I didn't labour anywhere near the bed though and actually gave birth in a pool but it was handy to put on the bed for afterwards - put a few of those nice soft inco sheets on top of it though for comfort.

Certainly get a mattress protector - even if you don't use the bed for giving birth, you will use it to rest in afterwards. I lost a lot of blood after my home birth, and the mattress certainly needed to be covered.

Good luck summerfruit!

deffo use a cheap plastic shower curtain. have mine on the bed right now. you cant tell, it doesnt rustle and perfectly comfy. big enough too and costs next to nowt

True and I often find small babies leak and milk does etc etc so always cover all mattresses even if there isn't a bed wetter in it. You can get mattress protectors with softer tops and plastic bottoms or just the cheaper plastic ones that seem to rip. I would usually put a blanket under that too for even more protection as over 22 years of leaking children I often find the mattress protector gets pushed off.

is \link{http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=10651&langId=-1&searchTerms=BED+PROTECTOR&viewType=seeAll&sortBy_1=32768&perPage=10&searchScope=458&searchType=&maxResults=80&currPage=4\this the kind of thing?

oh WHAT have I done

try www.argos.co.uk item number 1271027
what is wrong with these links grrrrrr

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summerfruit - you cannot 'fail' no matter how little you organise between now and then. you'll still give birth, oragnised or not.... i wish you the best of happiness with it all.

and yes, MN is a great place to come for all the info you want

Hi summerfruit, we got our dust sheet from the DIY section at the supermarket in the wekly shop.
B&Q or homebase will have them otherwise.

The one thing I found though is that having a plastic sheet on your bed(well under the fitted sheeet but YKWIM) makes the bed really uncomfortable.

I covered our mattress in a dustsheet when I changed the sheets just before DS4 was born and that night when I wentto bed I had to take it off again, it was a right PITA!!!

I just replaced the plastic sheet with a few towels instead. As it was I didn't need either as the MW broke my waters when I was at hospital.

Summerfruit - whatever you buy to protect your mattress, put it on well in advance in case your waters go in the night before you actually go into labour. This nearly happened to me and thank goodness I had the shower curtain on the bed!

oh and about being unorganised...Ds2 was born at home, an unplanned HB so I had nothing prepared.

He was probably the easiest of all 4!

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PMSL at Xenia's 22 years of leaking children. That could be a good book title!

I got a proper mattress protector from Wilkinsons about 6 months ago for about £5 - although i didn't give birth on the bed it was great afterwards when it was all a bit bloody...! All the best

I prepared meticulously for my homebirths, the whole house was sterile and practically clingfilmed. I still managed to get stroppy each time and had the babies on the livingroom carpet (had to change it), on the loo and one in the garden. There really is no accounting for labour urges.

I just used plastic dust sheets from Homebase.

someone in my ante-natal classes said you could get them from macro

Got dds ones from Rosebys