Convince me to have a homebirth.

[Lollyheart]

due dc4 in sept, I saw my mw yesterday and she suggested a home birth, the more I think about it the more excited I'm getting, but still not 100% sure.

Tell me your wonderful homebirth stories to convince me please

Know someone who's had 8! Not had one myself but if its your 4th you know your body and how you labour so you are well placed to judge how it'd suit. Good luck

Oh it was lovely having ds2 (third child) at home.

Was supposed to have HB with ds1, but no midwives available and I could tell was progressing FAST. Arrived at hospital at 10cm and he was born shortly afterwards. However, avantage of homebirth being booked was they let me home 2 hours later - at 11pm - in knowledge that midwife would do newborn check next day.

Anyway - ds2. Waters broke at 9pm.Midwife arrived for a while, but not much happening. HEad progressing down but (and she didn't check dilation) contractions not very bad. She left after an hour, at 10.30pm, to get supplies. I had a glass of wine and a couple of paracetemol.

Rang at 11pm - wave of good contractions, starting to feel pushing urges. She arrived back at 11.15pm and I spent 10 mins panting while she unpacked birth gear, syringes, scissors and so on. DS2 arrived at 11.29pm!

Lay in bed, fed while placenta delivered. Had gas and air because by then the midwife had had a chance to get it out of the car - no time before ds2 was born because she could hear that birth imminent from the front door! Second midwife arrived. Got in my own clean lovely shower while dh held ds2 and the midwives changed the bed sheets. Got back into bed with ds2. DD arrived upstairs to see him, having woken up and heard the shower running. Midwives had cup of tea, and so did I. They left at 1am and ds2 and I went to sleep.

Was bliss to be in own bed, at home. Breakfast in bed next morning, with ds1 and dd.

No mess - had a spare duvet ready made up and spare sheet ready to be put on after the birth. Used a towelling waterproof sheet from Ikea for the bed when I delivered and dh got some amazing plastic sticky backed sheeting from work which he used to cover the bedroom carpet/route to the en-suite.

GP came round next morning to do newborn check.

Im hoping to have one, as a default option in a way. Was becoming very worried about going into hospital, felt there were too many 'unknowns' as I have very little experience of the medical/birthing world!!

I figure it will be pot-luck in regards to the midwife wherever I am, so I may as well try to stay at home where it IS familar and 'known' to me.

Also I live fairly close to the hospital if it does go wrong.

i have had 2 homebirths. it's fantastic! so relaxed.
i had my own space to do what i wanted in, i had clean toilets and a nice clean bath to use afterwards. i could eat and drink what i wanted, watch tv, do whatever really.
my best birth was ds2's which was my first homebirth. it was lovely.
you get 2 midwives with their full attention on you, whereas in hospital with ds1 i was lucky if i saw one every 15-20 mins or so.

i would highly recommend it

I had DD2 at home. It was SO good I had DD£ at home.
Bought a birthing pool and had the best birth I could have ever imagined.

With DD2, DD1 joined us at the last stage, FAB.
DD£, DD1 and DD@ were withus an hour max later and we all got in my bed together and it was utter bliss.

Can't reccomment enough.

My DP who was a bit concerned over the whole idea with DD2 at first then went round telling everyone how much homebirths rocked.

Go for it, absolutley.

Sorry, my typing was awful then, I didn't look up at the screen before I posted or anything

From a dad's POV www.homebirth.org.uk/blokesven.htm

Being able to go to the toilet without traipsing across a corridor. Wandering around when/how you want. Eating and drinking what and when you want. Having all of your stuff around: music, DVDs, props, people. Reducing your chance of a CS by 50%. No having to decide when to "stop" labouring and go to hospital.

Afterwards: your own clean shower as soon as you want. Clean sheets and the ability to change them again at any point. Eating what and when you want (and where you want). Your other DC meeting baby as soon as you want.

Hundreds of stories here

And MW with you the whole labour

I had my second child at home.
Contractions started at 1145, six mins apart v quickly. Rang midwife about half midnight. They took over an hour to arrive and I pottered about with tens on while dh got towels and sheets ready in bedroom. I had planned on downstairs birth away from dd but was comfy where I was.
Two lovely midwives arrived and I breathed Ds out with very little intervention from them at 245am. Delivered leaning over a beanbag at foot of our bed. Straight to bed for a cuddle and a feed, then one midwife left (to get ready for another callout poor woman!) while the other helped me shower, change bed sheets and Dh had skin to skin. They made me toast and left us about 4am. Dd woke at seven as usual and came through to be met by a new brother.
I'm not having any more, so am so glad to have had such an amazing birth experience. It's not for everyone, but so relaxed. I feel I did things my own way second time, and didn't tear, plus recovered much faster.

Here's my home birth story. Hope it helps.

After having a very medicalised (?) labour and delivery (long induction, epidural then forceps) with my DD1, I was determined to have a home birth with my DD2. Because I'm an old bird (42) my consultant wanted to induce me at 40 weeks but I was so determinedto have a home birth, I asked to carry on to 42 weeks as long as I agreed to attend hospital for regular monitoring and scans. She was late and I was due to be induced again and dreading it, but luckily she decided to make an appearance the day before.

My waters broke weds tea time and I started contractions around midnight. Pain getting worse so I called the on-call community midwife about 8 am who had to make her way across town in rush hour. Due to the odd midwife cover in Nottingham I ended up with 3 midwives standing outside my house chatting at 9am!!

I was 1-2cm dilated at that time. Managed contractions with 2 paracetamol and TENS machine but I started to struggle by 11 ish. Midwife came over, didn't examine me, refused my request for gas and air, and announced that she would review my pain relief at 1.30pm because I had a "long way to go". DD2 was born at 1.22pm. Last pain relief was paracetamol at 9am! I have life time bragging rights about that!

It was a fantastic experience, and far beyond my expectations. I really recommend it, and the best bit afterwards was eating strawberry jam on toast, freshly showered, in my own bed with my partner holding our gorgeous new daughter.

Go for it, and good luck in whatever you decide.

Thankyou everyone.
I've been looking at birth pools to hire, I'm going to go for it

The thought of my own shower and bed after sounds lovely, and that i will be home so my other dcs can meet their new brother or sister straight away.
Thankyou for sharing your stories

Im planning on a home birth in September with my 1st.

No experiance of home births, as its my first, but i have known for years that when the time comes its what i want. Love the idea of sleeping in my bed next to OH (not in hospital where he is sent home between 8am and 8pm ) with my shower and my ensuite etc.

Reading all these lovely stories makes it even clearer to me that its what i would like.

Will have a TENS machine for early stages, water pool for the last bit and the birth, and am planning on hypnobirthing as well. My mum gave birth to me and my sister (in hospital) with only gas and air and homeopathic remedies and she had 2 easy natural straight forward births without any tearing, and labours of 8 hours / 6 hours so i hope mine is similar!

I had a homebirth with my first, now planning a second with DC2 due in Dec - I honestly had such a brilliant experience I'm terrified of having to go to hospital!

homebirth.org is a brilliant resource site with a variety of birth stories (including those that transferred etc), really helped me with my research. I know at the end of the day it's pot luck to a certian extent but the fact that I felt safe and relaxed in my own surroundings I'm sure contributed to an easy (relatively!) labour.

As everyone's said: 1 dedicated midwife then a second once you approach second stage, comfort of your own home, moving around where and when you like, mess is all cleaned up, clean shower, fresh sheets, no journey to or from hospital, substantially reduced chance of medical intervention, substantially reduced chance of catching other infections, midwife returns the next morning to check on you (compared to the aftercare of almost all my friends who had hospital births, I far and away had the best experience).

Go for it! Best decision I ever made

I hope it goes well. Congratulations. :)

I had a home birth a couple of months back for my first child and it was so much less stressful afterwards. The midwives were as hands off or on as I wanted them to be and DP was amazing because he was in his own environment. DD was born at 8:40 pm and apparently it was almost midnight before everyone finally left. All the midwives brought students with them so our little flat was quite crowded at one point and they all hung around for a bit drinking tea, eating biscuits and generally just enjoying the whole birth. I think the students don't get to see many home births so I'm glad it was beneficial for them too and hopefully they'll be confident about supporting other women with home births. (I could have refused presence of students at any point)

After everyone had gone, DP ran me a bath and lit candles and we had a glass of champagne while DD slept. It was lovely.