Homebirth... let's do this thing... what bags/equipment/other do I need to prepare?

[thunksheadontable]

So at 34 weeks I booked a homebirth but baby was supposedly breech and the mw seemed dubious. Scan today shows baby head down... and I realise now that baby was ALWAYS head down, because the "head" she was feeling is not a head at all, but a bony broad bum! This happened in my last pregnancy but much later and I had sort of forgotten that fact until today...

It has been a long road to get here. I have perinatal OCD and am the most risk averse person possible, have investigated every potential possible issue and decided that with the 5min transfer time to hospital and experienced m/w team on hand that this is the best option if I continue to be physiologically low risk.

I have just done a hypnobirthing course with 2 of the comm midwives who serve my area in my own home with my husband so have got some good insight into how they work etc, but because I had at the back of my mind that I might need an elcs for breech I haven't really given much thought to the practicalities. I know you need a hospital bag and to sort things like birth pools and floor coverings etc but has anyone got any helpful lists etc? I am going to a homebirth evening on Wednesday night at the hospital so I presume they will cover it but I want to start to do a bag this week anyway as we have visitors next weekend and systems are go from 37 weeks if it kicks off.

Any help/advice/encouragement gratefully received!

Plastic sheeting and incontinence pads. Also access to a table for the MW to lay things out like scales to weigh the baby and other equipment. Oh, and a hand mirror and a torch.

Everything else same as for normal birth really.

Not "normal", "hospital" birth!

Hi thunks, I've responded to a couple of your threads before.

Congratualtions on your home birth decision. I had a homebirth with DD2 and it truly was a wonderful (though still painful) experience and am planning another for DC3 due in Oct. You'll feel so much more relaxed in your own home, where you are in charge and can do what you want when you want, hopefully that will make all the difference to you.

We filled a box, which we kept in the dining room with all the things the midwife told us to get (we were given a list at our 36 week home visit) I can't remember everything (not all of it got used) but do remember:

• angle poise lamp - for if they have to do stitches
• torch for shining at your nethers if you're in the pool
• mirror in plastic frame for if you use a pool
• old towels
• waterproof coverings (we had a tarpaulin from homebase and a couple of decorating type covers) DH spread these on sofa and floor once I was in active labour and before mw arrived

I also packed a hospital bag with all the usual stuff in and kept it in the hall cupboard, used the stuff in it as and when needed during the course of the evening. So if had to transfer to hospital DH would have just brought the bag with it's remaining contents along with him in the car.

Also packed bag for DD1, who was taken to a friends house by my parents overnight (active labour from 7.30pm) and put list in the bag of it's contents.

Stuck list on inside of front door with the additional bits to remember for DD1s bag e.g. her comfort blanket that couldn't be packed in advance

In this area the midwives deliver a 'home birth' box to you at the 36 week visit and it contains all the medical type bits that they will need.

Best wishes for everything :)

I had a box for labour: Pampers bedwetter pads, drinks, snacks, chocolate, flannels, sweets, lavender spray.

One for after birth: new PJs, tenalady pants, maternity towels, chocolate, nappies, two sets of baby clothes/vests, drinks, lansinoh.

One for hospital/first few days: toiletries, nappies, sanny pads, baby wipes, change of clothes, baby vests.

Filled shower with new shampoo & gel, clean fluffy towels. Fridge filled with juices, milk, champagne. Freezer filled with lasagne and crumble. And bread - to cover post-natal breakfast/lunch/dinner.

So that can be summarises as things for me to eat and to catch bodily fluids

I think that sums up preparation for post-birth quite nicely Friday

These are really helpful thanks! Moonhare, how many towels? We need a new set anyway so it will be a good excuse to finish the life of the others!

Flannels, there's a thought Friday...

2 or 3 towels - as I recall these did actually get used, and at least one was thrown away afterwards!

I have OCD too (as well as having had PND-OCD - the post-natal variant) and have had a HB with DD2 (fantastic birth) and an attempted HB with DD3 (mec. in the waters so went in still a blinking good birth though).

The things I got were:-
Shower curtain (value/basics one) for the futon (didn't want a birth pool or to give birth lying down),
Old sheets for the futon to cover the shower curtain
Single bed size mattress pad for futon to cushion my knees though old pillows would suffice (my mum saw our pad in a charity shop and snatched it up as she thought it would be useful - it still is on the futon and protecting it from the children now!)
Inco pads for waters/mess
Old but clean and soft towels
Bucket in case of being sick in transition
Snacks for DH & I
Hospital bag packed with all the nec. gear for baby and me (clean clothes for baby, nappies, nursing bras/pads, big knickers, million big sanitary towels, wash kit, etc),
Back rubber/massager thing,
Birthball,
Spare set of clothes for DH & spare nightie/jogging bottoms for me in case of waters leaking everywhere,
Pack of paracetamol,

and most importantly - tea and coffee things laid out in the kitchen next to a filled kettle and a huge tin of chocolate biscuits - these are always appreciated especially after the birth.

Oh and last but by no means least - my brilliant Doula

Good luck and best wishes for the birth.

Such great ideas . Hey Truthsweet, I had OCD-PND after ds which is how all this started, never symptomatic before.

Can I ask a stupid question.. what are the towels for? I mean, I know there's mess but my last birth was so medical I don't really know what to expect. I know it can vary from person to person but at what point are they used.. when the waters go, after the birth etc?

And do you have to cover ALL the floor?

I have had OCD (and trichlotillomania) since I was a young girl but just wrote all my behaviours off as 'personality quirks' I didn't realise until I had full blown PND-OCD with DD1 where this all stemmed from.

I didn't even know what trich. was until I saw a Paul MacKenna documentary on television and said to DH 'Oh that's what I do, I didn't know it had a name!' DH just thought I was a hair fiddler not a hair puller - he hadn't realised!

CBT therapy has helped me enormously so if you haven't been offered it, ask for a referral, it really really helped and I had a much better post-natal time of it with DD3 than DD1 or DD2.

I take sertraline too which is a bfing compatible drug if you are thinking of bfing the baby (I was advised to bf [not that I wouldn't have anyway] due to the minimisation of withdrawal in the baby - neither DD2 or DD3 have had withdrawal even though they were conceived on sertraline and I hope DD4 doesn't either)

I used my towels to mop up waters, put over the birth ball so it didn't get 'icky' and to wrap baby in post birth/put on change mat so baby didn't get cold. They washed up fine though so they have gone back in the cupboard as spares/waiting for next baby.

Missed you last q - no the MW only threw down some inco pads directly under where I was birthing as she thought my waters hadn't gone (they had that was what the 'diarrhea' I thought I had was while I had scuttled off to the cloakroom in transition!). They were completely clean and there was no mess on the floor at all (this was DD2's birth).

I had a towel on the birth ball with DD3 as my waters went at about 2am - unfortunately it was a 1970's lairy towel so I didn't notice the mec. staining until the MWs turned up later that morning - oops! Try for a pale colour as your 'waters have gone' towel to make seeing the colour of the waters more apparent - I know I will be this time!

My waters didn't go until DD2 was almost out and I think that's when the midwife chucked some towels underneath me, not certain coz I was facing away from her resting my elbows on the sofa. I then tore and with my leaking waters the towels were a bit icky, but 2 certainly were washed and fine after. Think DD2 may have been wrapped in one smaller one too for a while, memory a bit hazy.

I'd forgotten about the old double duvet we spread on the floor on top of the tarpaulin so that's a good tip from truthsweet, if you're not in a pool you'll need something soft to kneel on - assuming you deliver kneeling though many of us do when left to our own devices it seems!

Bottle and a straw for drinking on your hands and knees or in the pool. Dh holds bottle, you hiss at him not to put it in your fucking eye... just as you reach transition. Or maybe just me

Definitely a bucket. So many uses. Plus antibac wipes and kitchen towel.

Lots of ice, I drank pints of ice cold water with a straw and dp used ice cold water on the flannel he used to mop my head (I love him so much just for doing that)

the best thing i got was 2 waterproof single bed sheets (the flannel covered ones) for 50p each from the charity shop

i put them on both sofas

i planned a water birth and had pool / waterproof sheets for floor etc etc but baby had different ideas and came VERY quickly so pool still too hot

i knelt on my sofa and my knee went down the cushion.. my waters went, and 3 cotractions later baby shot out (wasnt caught) there was no way any incontinence pads would have saved my sofa, but the bed sheet did.

I had decided that i would bin the bed sheet after use, but it went in the washing machine (with bio on a hot wash) and was fine, so its saved for use next time