DC1 - Homebirth - Need positive stories pls

[k4mi]

Hi all,

I'm 35 wks pregnant with my first and booked in for a homebirth. I have the pool and tens on order and i've been (trying) to get into Hypnobirthing and practising a few times a week. I've just started doing my Perennial massage and am hoping baby wont be a whopper (looking like 7lb ish).

Sooo overall i have been feeling pretty confident about birth but for some reason i am starting to get scared now about whether i can 'cope' with the pain. I have had an incredibly good pregnancy and still feel great mostly but sometimes worry that pre-pregnancy suffered a bit from pretty bad period pain and also a herniated disk in my back (ouch!). I keep worrying that for some reason i'm really going to suffer and end up in hospital having an epidural/induction etc. I'm trying hard not to be a control freak but really would rather avoid hospital as our local one is insanely busy and i'm more likely to end up giving birth in the waiting room from what i've heard.

What i'm after is:

1. Positive home birth stories (how did you cope with the pain etc)
2. Is there anything else you'd recommend to do in preparation in addition to the above?

My homebirth midwife also brings gas and air (which i will have) and pethidine if i want it / need it but i'm hoping to avoid.

Anyway please let me know your happy stories!

I had a hospital birth but as long as i was moving i was fine with the pain until i got to about 8/9 cm and then only needed gas and air. My mum gave birth to me at home (unplanned) and she was absolutly fine AND had no pain relief cos the ambulance didnt get here in time to take her to hospital, she literally had one push left and i was born.

Good luck and all the best for an easy birth and a healthy baby. xxx

Hi K4mi,

I had two homebirths, both positive experiences. With DD1, my first, I had a water birth at home. She was 8lbs exactly and I didn't need any other pain relief at all. With DS, I stupidly didn't have a birth pool (I thought for some reason there wouldn't be time to fill it!). I managed with a Tens Machine until I was about 8/9cms. At this point the labour had been quite slow and the midwife said it was because my waters still hadn't broken. She suggested they break them for me but warned that after that the labour would progress 'hard and fast'. I allowed her to break my waters and the labour was very intense but quick after that. Still, I managed with gas and air. The birth of DS was definitely much more painful, but then he was a good deal larger (9lbs8) and was also back to back, which apparently makes contractions more painful. Still, I managed at home, and while it was not the 'dream birth' that I had with DD, it was fine.

I had a great book called 'Birthing From Within' by Pam England which really helped me prepare psychologically for the births. It's available on Amazon, and there is also a website, www.birthingfromwithin.com

I loved the quote "giving birth is something a woman does in her body, not in her head".

Trust your body, and good luck :)

my first homebirth was exciting. Midwife turned up, and i was already well progressed ...and gave birth in 3 hours. very relaxed. it was easy to just focus on giving birth without having to deal with anything else. SHe was back-to-back and i am not going to lie about the pain: terrible but bearable. there was enough time between cont-x to rally for the next. staying upright and mobile helped to keep my mind off it and give me something to feel was moving things forwards!
some areas do homebirth groups where you can chat with other prospective mums.

My DC1 is 1yo in 4 days! He was born at home with the support of my DM & DH. It was just as I expected, painful but manageable, more so because I could wander around/eat/swear/soak in the bath. The comfort of your own home shouldn't be underestimated. I used a TENS & entonox I coped fine
You seem well organised, I did pretty much exactly the same. Be positive, it's what your body was designed to do, and a positive mindset is the most important element IMHO.
There's nothing like snuggling up with your newborn at home, all warm and toasty, when it's freezing outside.
Good luck.

As a Certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner I would advise that you go back to your practitioner and ask for a further session (or two). I think you need to address the fears that you still have and replace those thoughts with a positive vision of your birth.

You will have been given various scripts so you and your partner need to keep practising them. Are you also regularly listening to your affirmations and rainbow relaxation?

Very best wishes for your birth. x

I had an amazing homebirth with my DD, I only had the birthing pool as pain relief. I have no pain thresh

Threshold normally (DH thought I was in labour once but I just had cramp in my leg) but labour is a very different sensation to anything else you'll ever experience.

The things that kept me going were to focus only on the contraction at the time rather than thinking how many more there would be to come, and to visualise what my body was doing with each contraction.

Good luck!

Happy DC1 homebirther here. It was blooming painful, I think because DS got himself back to back, and it took absolutely ages, but it was doable, for me, with the pool, TENS, gas and air, I read the hypnobirthing book/listened to the cd, and squeezed very hard on DH's hands. And I had a fab midwife. If you end up going to hospital, it's ok, nothing matters really as long as you and your baby are ok.
Best of luck.

DD2 was born at home (while DD1 slept in the next room).
Lots of gas and air, but nothing else.
DD2 was born with me squatting beside the bed supported by DH.
Her sister walked in when she was 2 mins old.
The bests memory of all - mum, dad, sister and new baby all having lunch in cuddled up in bed in a winter sunbeam when DD2 was just 6 hrs old

Read The Heart in the Womb by an obstetrician that had a home waterbirth....there's a good facebook page on it.

Birth Reborn by M. Odent is super for the biology of birth

I tried to keep any fear in check, allowed no negative thoughts and distracted myself as much as possible-thats why home is so great, I had the TV on when I wanted it, pottered around doing bits and pieces, had the music I liked, sat in the garden for a while. I had a Tens machine and gas & air, built myself a little nest of sofa cushions (wrapped in plastic bags and covered with sheets and towels) and had low lights. It was a long labour (19 hours with irregular contractions as he was back to back) but the contractions weren't really painful at all and I had a wonderful gentle birth. I laboured alone with the midwives just observing and amusingly I had to call them over when DS's head crowned as they were at the table drinking tea whilst I laboured on the sofa.

Try and keep your jaw relaxed, if its tense then the rest of your body is, relaxed is good, don't clench your fists and 'build' up the contractions-try and relax into them which seems counter-intuitive but it worked. Visualise and vocalise too.

Had a brilliant home birth. Didn't realise until too late that the MW didn't actually carry G&A but then didn't get to a point where it occurred to me to ask for it. It was a bit hurty in bits, but it was all productive pain.

Things that helped me...

Gavin and Stacy boxed set on the DVD
Bath to begin with then birthing pool
Sitting on the loo for a few contractions can really progress things (but they hurt like buggery)
Having DH there for me to break his thumbs during Cx and Mum there to bring me little nibbly bites and water to drink in between them.

The one thing, no two things I wish I had been clearer about were
a) that at one point I would feel like I couldn't go on, but actually that was all transition period.
b) that if you happen to have h/rhoids then worrying about them popping out and therefore pushing sideways instead of outwards will not help you to give birth. (I award myself a for that.

I had a wonderful home water births with all my 3DC who weighed 7lb8, 9lb9 and 9lb1 and am planning the next for April/May and wish you all the best for yours.

You sound well prepared, I also listened to hypnobirthing CDs and used TENS during the morning. Stay positive and trust your body

I have never had gas and air as it didn't make it into the house for DC1 as the MW got to the house 45mins before DS - I was leaning on DH telling him not to let me puuush when she arrived and so I just got in the pool for the delivery after she'd done an internal. I didn't recognise transition when it was happening to me despite having known about it in theory since I was 15 and doing GCSE child development - surely kneeling over the chair saying, 'If this is going to go on for hours more I can't do it', is classic/text book enough to be obvious

Thank you for all of these wonderful stories, I am definitely feeling much more confident and have now written my birth plan which has relaxed me a lot to know exactly how i am visualising it in my mind!

I hate all this emphasis on pain! It stung a bit, but not pain on the scale of sciatica, an infected Bartholin's cyst, or serious toothache, honest (all things I've experienced with more pain). For me, my contractions are a bit all over the place until I get in the pool, then they stabilise. Lower back massage from dh, use of birthing ball and then the pool once I'm over 5cm (I ask for an internal for this, but that's up to you). Hypnobirthing - only read up on this before dd3, and realised that it's pretty much what I do anyway, visualising the outcome I want and going with my body.

Have had all 3 of my babies at home, no drugs, no problems (well, dd3 swallowed meconium, but that was going to happen anywhere and that's why you have 2 midwives with you), no mess, no stitches. From 7lb 4oz to 9lb 9oz. And dh can have a cup of tea whenever he wants (when we went in after the birth with dd3, they wouldn't let him).

Finally, if you do transfer for epidural/induction or whatever, it's not a failure, it's just the same as would happen if you went in at an earlier stage, surely?

Enjoy!
(caveat: haven't read any of the other posts, pain comments not targetted at anyone in this thread, it's a general comment on that people seem to associate birth with pain, and I don't think it should be the overriding experience in most cases).

I had two amazing home births. The first was on the couch with a bit of gas and air, the second was with HypnoBirthing in water and was the most empowering experience of my life. So much so that I trained to be a practitioner and have now been teaching for 2 years. Practise your techniques, believe in yourself and trust your body. I found watching calm and gentle births on YouTube especially useful in the run up to my birth. There are many lovely ones and I have quite a few on my YouTube channel in the playlists. Maybe reread your book to remind yourself of everything you have learnt and definitely check in with your Practitioner.
You can watch my sons birth here:

and the channel is here: www.youtube.com/user/EastLondonHypnoBirth/videos?view=pl Wishing you a wonderful birth.