Home birth with twins

[Jojoba1986]

I'm only 10 weeks pregnant & have no idea if I'm having twins but I can't get the thought out of my head! I had a hb with DS1 & would really like another one. I know there can be more issues with twins & I think you're usually under consultant care, right? Just wondering if anyone has had a problem-free pregnancy with twins & been brave/crazy enough to have a home birth?

(FWIW, I have no intention of completely disregarding medical advice, I'm just wondering if anyone else has!)

My dad and his twin were born at home, but this was at a time when scans weren't available yet and his poor mum didn't realise what she was in for! All went well though, they're both 68 now :)

Generally as far as I know MWs will all but flat out refuse a hb for twins, because the potential complications are huge. A twin pregnancy is automatically classed as "high risk" and that basically takes you out of the running for hb from day one. You could choose to go with an independent MW but I think you would have a hard time finding one who would go along with it.

I'm having a hb with DC2 but if it were twins, there's no way I'd choose that option.

what would happen if you insisted on a home birth though? They can't "refuse"

Congratulations on the pregnancy OP :)

Cailin my gran also had twins - but she was xrayed a few days before delivery, so the doctors knew... but they didn't tell my gran, as obviously you wouldn't want to bother the patient with technical medical stuff!

You could choose a home birth but would probably benefit from a doula to fight your corner. When my twins were born I felt that my needs for any particular type of birth experience was secondary to their safety, particularly the safety of twin 2. And with the high percentage of premie births you might plan for one type of birth and end up, as I did, with an out of the blue emergency c-section with babies not breathing and being rushed to SCBU, in which case you'd be glad to be in a hospital.

I was booked in for a home birth before they found out it was twins. My mw was lovely and said that although a hb was still technically possible it puts a tremendous stress and pressure on the midwives attending and if something was to go wrong then obviously they have to live with it too (I did ask her to be honest in her opinion)
In my situation the hospital was an hour a way too, how far is your hospital and how quickly can you get there? As pp mentioned, twin 2 is the main concern - I narrowly avoided a section with the second.

Interestingly I also had a gut feeling it was twins mostly due to becoming the size of a cow overnight never had the feeling with the older ones

I know someone who has exactly the same feelings as you.
she is 30 wks with twins having had a beautiful gentle hb with DC1

the reality of giving birth to identical twins at home has made her calmer about being in hospital.
These are much wanted babies and there is no way that she could ignore the details the hospital have given her.
The hospital had said they would be more willing to discuss a HB if they were non identical twins.
Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Thanks for the replies! It's useful to get a few other view points. I feel silly even thinking about this before I know if it's twins but I'm a worrier & like to think through all possible eventualities in advance. It never occurred to me to be remotely concerned about twins last time though - weird!

The hospital is a 5 minute drive away! No way would I even consider it with id twins but if I had non-id twins in a good position with no other complications then I might, maybe toy with the idea! Even with id twins I think I'd ask to be put in the midwife led unit rather than the consultant led bit. They're just down the corridor from each other & it would mean I'd have more space without a pesky bed that they'd have to sedate me to get me on!

I think its your decision but i have non-id twins. Both in good positions and had a very easy pregnancy. went onto natural labour dt1 was born and then dt2 obviously decided ooh lots of extra room and started moving round, they put a hand up to try and move him back and get him out and then he stopped breathing (the umbilical cord had gone round his neck). I was rushed for emergency cesarean, he scored 1 on the agpar score and spent a long time in scbu to recover. I don't want to scare you but I was told if they had waited longer he would have been starved of oxygen and wouldn't have made a full recovery. On my experience I would go for hospital. But congratulations on twin pregnancy, mine are now very happy healthy 6 year olds and I love having twins

Sorry misread your op.. Not sure if twins Yet but congratulations on pregnancy.

Ive had 3 homebirths but would go to hospital for twins.

find the facebook group "home birthers and hopefuls"

there are plenty of people who choose to birth their twins at home, and do so sucessfuly

its up to you where you give birth, regardless of if its a low risk singleton or triplets!

I had a homebirth - just with one, not twins but there was another woman booked in for a homebirth at the same time as me and she was pregnant with twins. The midwives were ridiculously relieved when they were called when I was in labour that it wasn't the twin lady. I think they were all crossing their fingers they weren't on shift when that happened.

It must be pretty stressful for the midwives and we live half an hour from the hospital should anything have gone wrong.

When I looked into natural deliveries of twins I found it quite daunting, exactly as Tommy says, as the second baby can move once the first is out. The second baby has a higher risk of birth trauma in a natural delivery of twins in any event (which is why an unlucky few end up delivering the first vaginally and the second by CS...). You would also have no idea of whether their position was suitable for a natural delivery let alone HB until well into the pregnancy. When I looked at the details there was no way I'd want to do it without an obstetrician experienced in multiple deliveries on hand, but then again I would not want a homebirth anyway even though my deliveries have always been fast, so I am biased!
But your chances of conceiving twins are 1 in 60 for fraternal and 1 in 260 for identical so I would get your scan out of the way before you stress too much! Good luck with your pregnancy.

Congrats on your pregnancy.

I had non-ID twins, prematurely but thats a different issue, but just wanted to re-iterate the "moving goalposts" of a twin delivery. Both well placed, head down, all set to go to start with, labour going as planned. Twin 1 was born, Twin 2 decided he was off for a wander now he had tons of room that he'd not had for several months. I was told I'd have to have an emergency section to get him out if I didn't deliver him very quickly. At that point, I had a consultant with me who did a whole lot of maneouvring, and I did manage to deliver him naturally but he was breech (which led to complications for both of us). It was quite scary how quickly it went from "everything is under control" to "emergency". I wouldn't contemplate a home birth for twins.