Nice little tips - please add and share!

[PixieCake]

I heard a nice little tip the other day that I am going to try to do:

• sleep with your newborn's blanket in the last few weeks of pregnancy, so that it smells of you when you wrap the baby in it at the hospital

I wish I had done this last time as I found it hard to cuddle my newborn for a number of different reasons so she was in a cot in a hospital blanket.

Anyone got any other easy little things to add that don't take much effort but are a nice idea?

Another one I heard was to ask for the room to be silent when the baby comes out so that the first thing it hears is its mothers voice. Not for everybody I know, but please share any other suggestions x

Not sure why then because midwives are allowed to administer it as they see fit, so why wouldn't this apply to home births? It might be their NHS trust that doesn't allow it.

girl that's a bit different to them not being able to do it at all though. How come they don't allow pethidine at that hospital?

"What is so wrong with allowing women options?"
the resources (i.e. staff) that go into the stand alone MLUs come OUT of resources that could go into home births, here because we have a stand alone MLU everyone is discouraged from home births because the community MWs spend their night shifts at the MLU. I was told that I could have a home birth if I had my baby during the day but if it was at night they couldn't spare 2 MWs away from the MLU

there is nothing you can have at the MLU that you can't have at home, some inflatable birth pools are basic and some have slopes, seats, lights etc, same as the range of birth pools you might end up with at a MLU

(I know you can insist, but TBH it doesn't give you a good feeling about the birth if the MWs treat your option like a ball ache because the MLU is just more convenient for them (they have a room to sleep in when THEY think you don't need them!)

(the pool I had at the MLU was a crappy solid uncomfortable thing, I've seen much better inflatable ones)

Good midwives will encourage home births, but I can understand why it would be a pain in the arse for them. Staff is short enough in the hospitals unfortunately.

It would be good if people having a home birth could afford to pay for an independant midwife. But then again why should they have to...

No winning really. The government needs to sort their shit out and allocate more money for midwives. Every woman should have one to one care but unfortunately it just isn't available.

"Staff is short enough in the hospitals unfortunately" because they keep increasing the hospital "options" so there's less for HB options

its in the name of choice but actually its giving us less choice really

we now have 2 stand alone MLUs in a drivable distance (one is attatched to a hospital, but not a hospital with any obs or paeds provisions), plus a MLU attatched to a hospital with full obs/paeds/SCIU provision

• so they use up all their staff on keeping the fecking MLUs staffed! There's not enough left for them to be happy to provide home births! so stand alone MLUs represent LESS choices and more women institutionalised for their birth (even if the decor is pretty in the MLU, its still neat and an institution and "their territory!)

I repeat that I am NOT talking about MLUs joined on to CLUs (or on the next floor etc), I am talking about stand alone MLUs or MLUs in hospitals that dont have a CLU step up!

so you see how the MLUs actually in reality mean there are less community MWs available for HBs, and therefore there is less choice for women. They're just a neat and convienient way of fobbing off women with a "home from home environment" (bollocks!) so they don't have to/can't spare 2 MWs and can do other work (man the phones etc) instead of giving you full attention

anyway back to tips, because I'm finding them quite useful for packing for no2

i second the bottle of water in the freezer tip, and evian water spray

You do not need a bounty pack to get your CB form so don't let them tell you that you do when they bother you on the post natal ward. you can order it in advance or get it from the registrar!

TMI I go against popular opinion and DO rate paper pants, I bled a lot and found it handy to just rip the sides when sitting on the loo and chuck the bunch in the bin each time rather than peeling off saturated pads and peeling soaking pants down my legs

buy a range of different breast pads, plastic backed ones are not great for 24hr use as the lack of breathability can encourage thrush, but I found them nice and flat for out and about (the comfy ones had bulky outlines that poked out through clothes), and when my nipples were really sore the washable ones were the most comfy, but was good to have a variety for different times of day - the big thick disposables were good for night time (not plastic backed!) and they were also good for making poultis (?spelling?) to place on CS scar with boiled water, tea tree and lavender

don't pack one big bag, pack 3:
labour bag
postnatal bag for you and baby
birth partners bag

it helps to have them separate if your birth partner needs to take bits home and bring in other things for you

car park change! don't forget car park change!

In the most polite way possible, what you're saying is a bit ill informed to be honest. It's not like that everywhere. Maybe for your trust/hospital, but not all. Increasing options? You mean increasing the amount of maternity units because they are NEEDED.

Of course they're going to use the midwives to staff their maternity units, that's what they're there for. And even those are understaffed with the midwife to woman ratio being a bit stretched. Actually some hospitals are failing to meet this standard ratio at all.

Fact of the matter is more women want hospital births, although there is a rise in home births which is great. So obviously they need to meet the demand for that, and as far as I'm aware no-one is stopping anyone from having a home birth are they?

More midwives are needed all round. Maybe it'd be bloody easier for people like me to get onto the degree course then too! Instead of 1350 people going for a 25 person course.

Goldship, I don't know, I agree it's unreasonable. My neighbour decided against a home birth in favour of the MLU on that basis, actually, because she was scared of a birth with only gas and air on offer.

Halloweeny, in my old trust the hospital attached MLU was sometimes closed because there were insufficient midwives to staff it. I sympathise with your own choices being constrained, too, but surely that applies to any woman's choices if funding and midwife cover is at issue - why privilege your own preference as a universal, and argue to reduce choices available to others? That doesn't really seem very balanced. [[http://www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/MS2Midwife-ledunits-1.pdf MLU generally show high maternal satisfaction scores, and I'm sorry your own experience didn't bear that out, but as mine did, and the plural of anecdote is not data so neither experience can offer more general application, perhaps the best position is that women should be supported in giving birth where they feel most comfortable, confident and supported - wherever that might be? Personally, I would hate to give birth at home. I'd be one of the Dutch women angry if that were enforced. Nor would I want a CL birth - just being checked out in that environment made me tense, and increased the pain levels markedly.

I loved giving birth. I really enjoyed it. I was at home for 3 days, but then it was absolutely not the right environment for me - and nor was the CLU, where I had a check after 48 hours. The MLU was perfect, and I absolutely intend to give birth there this time around, too. So please, stop arguing that that option shouldn't be there for women it suits, just because you personally wouldn't favour it. The two stand alone MLUs in this region - one in Oxon, one in Glos - are much loved by the women who use them. They deserve support, just as home birth options do.

So obviously they need to meet the demand for that, and as far as I'm aware no-one is stopping anyone from having a home birth are they?

In our Trust (since moved) nobody could be denied a home birth, but plenty were a MLU one. That was what was closed when midwife coverage was low.

The answer isn't closing MLU, IMO. It's more midwives.

" if funding and midwife cover is at issue - why privilege your own preference as a universal"

I'm not, didn't you see in my post that there are THREE MLUs here? many women that would have preferred a HB were rail roaded into one or other of them

I'm not against all MLUs just stand alone ones

Yes they need more midwives, but MLUs require less midwives per women so instead of increasing midwife numbers they are increasing MLU beds as its a more "efficient" way of getting women to pop em out!

(it was actually shagmundfreud who started this by the way by.. I would like to see more tips personally)

I think you're conflating two issues: funding for women's choices when giving birth, and the benefits or otherwise of MLU.

No woman should be pushed into giving birth in a way that doesn't suit her. But as many women really like MLU as a model, and they incidentally save the NHS money, then as long as it remains a choice, and we don't go the Dutch route and force women to birth the one way the state deems cheapest unless it's actively dangerous (home births, incidentally - provision of the birth setting costs a lot more than midwife salaries, given you still need midwives and 1 to 1 care in that setting) then I don't see a problem.

I wouldn't like any birth setting to be forced on anyone - I believe quite strongly that my own confidence in my care and setting helped me have a happy, easy birth (though obviously the biggest contributor was luck). And I wouldn't personally like to give birth without high-tech medicalised care close to hand. But people really are evangelical about how wonderful the two stand-alones locally are, so why argue against those options being available? Why shouldn't women have a range of choices, so they can work out what suits them most?

Curious about the "rail roading" - does your PCT deny home births to women? How do they do that? It's pretty shocking, if so, I agree.

Nobody I know in this area has ever got an NHS home birth, never met a single one who has even in passing! met lots that WANTED one though, the ones that wanted one either ended up in the MLU because we're told "women like it" or else paid at least 3k for private MWs to attend (obviously not an option for everyone)

there are in reality only 2 choices or, CLU or MLU. most of the resources go into the three MLUs, what's wrong with leaving the MLU attatched to the CLU in place, and diverting resources (in the absence of more MWs which is ideal but lets be real!) from the stand alones to HB so that there are THREE choices rather than two?

That's terrible, absolutely agree. In all 3 of the areas I know well, home births are on request, no problem at all unless you have genuine health issues that make that problematic for mother or baby.

I used to live in the East, and my lovely CMW set out that she supported any choice at all as long as the person was happy to talk it through, so she could be sure there were no misconceptions. My birth plan set out that if I was overdue/breech I wanted an elective section rather than an induced delivery/vaginal birth, and she said she agreed that that was what the evidence indicated, and wrote it up as being with her full support. And I knew a lot of people who delivered at home, too. Also know one who had an elective section because she was phobic of natural birth, and that was quite calmly and supportively arranged.

Currently live in the West Country and again, I know a fair few people who've had home births. If it is being denied on anything but medical grounds then that's unacceptable, I agree, and it's also contrary to NICE guidelines too, but I don't think there's any need to blame MLU per se, as they do suit many women beautifully. It's the lack of genuine choice that is appalling - whatever that choice may be.

But the problem with diverting resources from 3 units down to 1, incidentally, is I doubt quite that number (2/3) would prefer homebirths to MLU ones, and if you remove alternative beds then you are forcing them into it. Which is the Dutch model. Offering women a choice of a home birth is pretty different to their being insufficient beds for anything else.

The reality is that we have too few midwives, too few midwifery places, and a climbing birthrate. It's a problem. The answer isn't, really, to shuffle the choices to those that suit some women, and not others. That isn't solving anything, just altering the unhappy constituency.

What happened to our lovely light hearted sharing tips thread?? I was enjoying that!

y y to princess

Feel I should add something now I've delurked.

Most useful things I had in my hospital bag were bendy straws for labour and moist flushable toilet wipes for after - they are now top of my list!

I second the moist toilet tissue, especially after that first scary poo, very soothing!

What is nice about this thread is that you pick things up that you haven't thought about before. I have had two babies and pregnant with no 3 and moist toilet wipes have never crossed my mind. Genius!

I don't like how political this has all got but I have had two intervention free hospital births. The second was particularly calm and relaxed. Birthing ball, lights down low with minimal MW intervention. Out in six hours and could not fault it. Will now back away from the thread.....

I'll add a nice little tip: don't forget your phone charger so you can keep up to date with MN call your mum when you're on the Post Natal ward.

And don't forget your slippers!

If you phone has a camera all the better, if not take one in then you may feel less inclined to have them by the ridiculously expensive bounty photo lady who prays on your hormones