Ok, so which MNer gave birth in my campsite this morning? I have some questions....

[TorchlightMcKenzie]

like, how did you fill the birth pool?
How did you keep hot?
How did you empty it?
Did you also deliver the placenta in the bell tent?

And many MANY more!

And, can I meet you? Am also in bell tent with 7 week old!

How many neighbours do you have?

Walls are a little different to tents last time I checked too...

My only jealously is that people are able to 'volunteer' all summer but still afford the services of a private midwife and doula - unless they gave their services for free ? - but I suspect not

Theres a big difference between having a baby at home (brick walls) and in the middle of a camping field (canvas, you might as well be in the same room)

If its something thats planned though, then its pretty damn inconsiderate to expect campers next door to you to be happy with that with no warning.

Not to mention you have plenty of time in advance to speak to neighbours about it...

ooh dear, all i have to say is that child will almost certainly be described as spirited.

and ffs....galadriel, I bet her mother doesn't all her that.

CALL, not all! I have crumbs in my keyboard!

Are the crumbs wholemeal?

Shagmund, I am really disturbed by your aggression.

you're really, really wrong as well...why are you determined to think we are all bastards?

I just don't get what makes you so aggressive about this subject. Does it touch a personal nerve for you in some way? We are clearly upsetting you a lot but I can't understand why.

I have no reason to be jealous. I had a home birth. I wouldn't wish to do it on a campsite. I didn't do it in front of my other child and I'm not sure you can reliably state that most people who give birth at home do so, either. I realise some do, but these are their own children generally, and not those of strangers who may not wish to have their children woken at 3.30am by screaming while on holiday.

You're refusing to accept that many of us feel this way, and just flinging around random insults at everyone, which make me wonder whether the issue is somehow yours, rather than ours.

If it wasn't planned then I'd be grateful for other people's forebearance. There would be nothing I could do about it.

If it was planned, and it was, then surely other people deserved a bit of advance warning as well - it's common courtesy.

and I still think it was very, very pretentious.

You plan a late night party at home: you go and invite the neighbours. Same goes fir planning to give birth at a festival.

Shagmund I think you are missing the point. There is a huge amount of support for homebirth on MN. This wasn't a homebirth. It was an attention-seeking campsite birth that invaded the holidays of others.

"How many neighbours do you have?"

I live in London, in a small terraced house. I gave birth 10 feet away from the bedroom windows of three neighbours, on a hot night, with the windows open.

Oh, and I had two ambulances pull up outside the house during the birth, blue lights and sirens going.

My neighbours were in fecking ECSTASY with the excitement of it all.

"and ffs....galadriel"

so much more reasonable and vastly less funny if she was called Isabelle, wore a little Boden nightshirt, and gave birth in a state of semi-paralysis with half a dozen strangers staring at her exposed fanny.

Tuna - I remortaged the house to pay for my private midwife. I also do voluntary work.

"It was an attention-seeking campsite birth that invaded the holidays of others"

Are you saying that they deliberately chose to have their baby on a camp site BECAUSE they wanted an audience? And not because the husband was volunteering there?

How do you know that they were motivated to have a birth there for this reason?

I think I'll change my profile on my internet dating site from

-Actively seeking a relationship

to

• Seeking to pledge vows at a hand-fasting ceremony at Chalice Well at Glastonbury

The name thing is because it's pretentious. It's what I did when I was about 14. I changed my name for a while to something from a book.

It wasn't clever, it was daft and it didn't transform me into a goddess or an elf or anything else.

Someone who is still thinking this way at 30 odd is unusual.

"why are you determined to think we are all bastards?"

Because you're being so NASTY about something that in the big scheme of things would have been a very minor inconvenience to the other campers, and was the most important, thrilling and emotional event in this couples whole lives.

It's just so mean spirited.

Did you remember to warn the neighbours of your impending homebirth in advance shagmund?

So three sets of neighbours. So lets say 4 x 3 = 12 people. People you have probably at least said hi to at some point, and maybe even have a good relationship with.

And how many tents would be affected at a camp site in the same way? Around people you've never met and never had the chance to speak to.

To me its about courtsey and respect, rather than just where someone is giving birth. But feel free to miss the point.

And I think Shag, with your comment above you just proved what a biased, narrowminded rather judgmental individual you can be at times. You successfully manage to undo a lot of the great work you do with the comments you make when you do that. Congrats.

My DH works as a scaffolder. Shall I be birthing up high? He might not want to miss it. (The view is also better.)

I really, really hope this new mum doesn't ever get wind of this thread, because if I was her and read this I would be completely devastated that the most meaningful event in my life, an event which was, I imagine, for the most part greeted with joy and excitement by the other people there, was being sneered at and judged in this way.

But hey - that's the internet for you. There's lots of unkindness out there.

So, did you warn your neighbours in advance shagmund?

And what about the ladies you judge because they choose a hospital and wear Boden?

I can't understand this at all. But each to their own.

Why the fuck is there that level of detail in the paper about their middle class nonsense beliefs if it's not attention seeking?

Some people take themselves far too seriously.

Wish I could piss about all summer 'volunteering' with an entourage!

Definitely enough material here for a BBC3 sitcom.

and I just had mine at the QEQM

Shag - have you ever camped - if you did you would know how sound carries - especially in the middle of the night - may aswell be in the same tent as woman giving birth !

Here's a medal for paying off your re mortgage whilst doing volunteer work
Most of us on MN do soe sort of volunteer work but don't take the whole bloody summer off to do it and afford the thousands of ££ it costs for private midwife and doula - hopefully they are is in some paid employment too to pay for all this.