Had my booking in appointment with the midwife this afternoon. She was absolutely lovely, I'm really pleased. She said she'll send the fax off today for the scan and I should get a letter through with a scan date next week. She said it'll happen between weeks 10 and 14 and that they do do the nuchal scan. I'll wait and see when the date is and then decide about getting a private scan.
She gave me a huge pack of stuff, a lot of which was just advertising crap which I've chucked! But lots of good stuff too.
But the big thing we talked about which I'm really excited about is the possibility of having a home birth! She said I'm low risk and you can have a water birth, gas and air and even pethadine at home. You get 2 midwives once you're in active labour apparently. She also said that there's a brand new midwife lead birthing centre at my local hospital (bradford) which sounds great and has 2 birthing pools. Initially I said no way to a home birth but after talking about it for a bit, it sounds great. I HATE hospitals. I'm not scared of them, I just hate them. I hate the noise, all the sick people (!) the lack of privacy, the crappy linen, everything! I've never actually had to stay in hospital and it's literally one of my biggest fears. I take my own pillows with me on the rare occasions I stay at a friend's house, I'm a bit of a princess when it comes to where I sleep. So the possibility of being able to give birth in the comfort of my own home is really wonderful. She said you can change your mind whenever you want and if anything goes wrong, they call an ambulance and the hospital is about 10 minutes away. She also said that labour can be a lot easier at home because you're less stressed. I think you have to buy the pool yourself but that's ok. Imagine all the stress you'd avoid by not having to go to hospital. Then you could all just be in your own bed together rather than some horrible bed on a ward other people there. I've always said I want to get home asap after the birth so giving birth at home means I don't have to go anywhere potentially! Am going to read up about it on the website she told me about and discuss with DF. Also going to talk to doctor friends and people who have had babies. My 2 best friends have had pretty horrendous experiences giving birth in hospital, for different reasons, but they both said one of the worst things was the other people (chavs particularly) screaming and shouting and swearing. Maybe that's just what you get for living in Yorkshire?! ;-)
Also, you're guaranteed to have a water birth if it's at home unlike in hospital where it's a bit of a lottery cos they've only got 2 pools and it's obviously pot luck when you go in. All my friends wanted a water birth but none of them got it.
So has anyone here had a home birth or know anyone who has? Thoughts?