Preparations for home birth

[hewlettsdaughter]

Hi all, I am 38 weeks today and really need to get my act together re preparing for my planned home birth. I have had a home birth checklist from my community midwives, and I have looked at Angela Horn's Home Birth Reference Site but I am still not sure what to buy to cover the floor/sofa/wherever I end up when the baby is born. I have read that you can use groundsheets, shower curtains, even those waterproof tablecloths - can anyone particularly recommend anything?
I should add that my ds was born in an unplanned home birth and we made do with bin bags then. I would like to be a bit better prepared this time though!

I had been thinking bedroom but am not sure. We have two quite small two-seater sofas so don't feel they're big enough to be much use. Might see what midwife thinks when she comes.

There is an article on that site that hd linked too which suggests buying some of that waterproof tablecloth stuff.

My mw asked if we were going to take the sofas out of the room but when I said no, we hadn't thought to, she seemed quite happy. Am kind of imagining leaning against them, over cushions or whatever...

We put a tarpaulin down on the floor under the pool - a lightweight one form a local building-suppliers. The midwives brought loads of the unglamourously named 'inco-sheets' (as in incontinence) to put on sofa, bed etc. The midwives will do ALL the clearing up and getting you tucked up in bed - you shouldn't have to deal with mess. (unless like me you transfer to hospital at the last minute and then DP has to come home to a bombsite full of towels, and dripped waters all over the place.)

Curtains for all rooms - I was having contractions all over the house.

Food for mw's. Mine kept wanting to go home for dinner until my dp and bf force-fed has a M&S ready meal.

Oooh, just remembered my top tip. Find a hot water bottle. I spent about four out of the seven hours of my last labour sitting on the sofa against one. If I hadn't had a pool, I suppose I'd have given birth there, actually.

Ah...I had seen references to inco pads (or sheets) and didn't know what was meant by that. Curtains - definitely. New extension has velux (roof) windows, we have bought blinds so the neighbours won't be able to look down on me!

I heard that disposable nappy changing mats (get them in Mothercare, ToysRUs etc) were good because they are so absorbent and smaller than a huge tarpaulin so they can be carried around with you and put down wherever you happen to be when you give birth!
Good luck hewlettsdaughter - let us know how it goes!

Hi, I had plastic sheeting from homebase - it was sold off a roll so get as much as need to cover bed, carpet etc and cheap. It was quite slippery though so I also got a thin duvet and cover from charity shop which I placed on top of the sheeting (had no old towels and didn't want to wash anything after so was intending to throw it away). As I wanted to kneel whilst resting on birthing ball it made the floor more comfortable and it was absorbent. Pampers bedcare mats (disposable) were also useful when I wanted to sit on the sofa. Having done all the preparation however I ended up giving birth in hospital as after 24 hrs labour at home they wanted to put me on a drip to speed things up and i was too tired to argue (gave birth 1 hr later in hospital and was ready to push in the ambulance). One important tip if you are planning to use gas and air, make sure the midwife checks the equipment works before you actually need it as when i did need it, it didn't work and I has to wait 4 hrs for the other midwife to arrive by which time had had pethidine. Sorry hope I didn't put you off, overall it was brilliant being at home and I would definitely choose homebirth again.

I bought plastic sheeting from B&Q too, and put it on the floor in the living room. I'd always imagined I'd give birth on the floor kneeling against the sofa and that's exactly what I did. I had LOADS of pillows and some (red!) towels, and I also sacrificed a cheap double duvet to kneel on. Actually there was hardly any mess at all - only the duvet and that was to be binned anyway - I didn't even bother with anything covering the sofa.

oh, on the subject of where to give birth - I think it is a good idea for there to be a reasonable amount of space, partly because the midwives will need to lay out all their kit at some point and its probably easier for them if there's space to do this. I ruled out the bedroom because I knew I would want to be kneeling and there wasn't enough space around the bed to kneel against it

Incywincy - that sounds like my sort of homebirth! I worry I am not going into this in the right frame of mind.

What do people normally do about the 3rd stage at home? is it usually managed or natural? Have looked at a recent thread on this and can't really see which is preferable.

Fennel, my midwife asked me what I wanted to do about the third stage. I asked what the benefit of delaying cutting the cord was and she said that it allows more oxygen to get to the baby. Also if you manage to breastfeed it makes your uterus contract so you may not need syntometrin to help deliver the placenta. I got the impression that they are more likely to give the drug in hospital - maybe to keep things moving? - but that there's less of a need at home. Saying that, I think there's a bit more of a risk of haemorraging with a natural 3rd stage.
To be honest, I don't know loads about it and am keeping an open mind.
Thanks all for your replies re sheeting etc. I bought a couple of the plastic tarpaulin things from the diy store up the road earlier - admitted to bloke who was selling them what they were for and he said he and his partner/wife had had two children at home so I didn't feel too wierd

Sounds a good idea to check the gas and air before you need it!

Hi fennel, I've had 2 home births and had the injection both times on the basis that a) I didn't care how the placenta came out, I just wanted it out quickly and intact so I knew it was sorted and I wouldn't have to go in to hospital and b) I couldn't find any arguments that convinced me against the injection tbh. The baby was out by then, I was holding him or her and I didn't give a s* how the placenta was delivered! Others may have different views but it suited me - I didn't even feel it since it's such minor pain compared to childbirth. Hewletsdaughter, good luck with your birth!

Oh, and with my first they ran out of gas and air and I was NOT happy. It took a midwife 40 minutes to arrive from the hospital with a spare cannister. So this time I asked for extra cannisters and they brought 3. I got through most of them.

dd2 was born at home a bit quicker than we expected - no plastic sheeting in sight at all. Ended up throwing away a very nice dressing gown, onto which she was delieverd, and an old sheet, which was intended to be "sacrificed" anyway. We have a lovely once-red now deep brown mark on our mattress - but we're actually rather fond of it - and only we know it's there... My mw was not convinced by plastic sheeting anyway and told me not to bother - she got hold of those big squares of cotton-wool type wadding but they never made it out of their bag.

those pampers changing mat things are handy when having a home labour and not too pricey. Don?t get any ground sheet plastic things that are too flimsy. I made this mistake and was a pain trying to move carefully.

Also can be very uncomfortable, hot and slippy when you get sweaty etc. so worth putting the plastic on the floor and covering with an old sheet or two for comfort. I bought a really cheap duvet from Asda (less than a tenner) and put that on the floor, was worth every penny. It was much more comfy on the knees and nicer for the baby to be born onto it rather than the bed and risk messing the bed up.
Worth thinking about the power points in the room where you will be labouring as the MWs will need access to at least one to set up their equipment.
We were told to get a torch and candles ready just in case of a power cut!! A bit much for many, but our area (very rural) is notorious.
Making sure you have plenty of paracetamol in the house for early labour pains is a good idea.
Arnica is great, as is lavender oil, candles.
Worth preparing a compilation CD in advance so that you aren?t ransacking your CD collection at the last minute. I gave my DH this job in the last week and he really enjoyed the diea that he was doing something to help me (bless him!)
Make sure you keep a stock of nibbles, choc, biscuits, tea bags,coffee, sugar and milk for the mws! Ours ate tons of them and was worried we would run out of supplies for all of us (longish labour!!)
Good Luck - really exciting time. I would love to go through it all again despite the pain and stress, it was just magical labouring at home.

Thanks for all your advice, everyone. It's nice to hear positive reports of planned home births too . After my last home birth, it was great to be at home, with DH and the new baby. The birth itself was quick and scary though.
Re the compilation CD idea - DH is very into his music and I thought he would jump at the chance to put something together for the birth - but he hasn't picked up on my suggestions. Maybe because we didn't even get as far as thinking aobut music last time, I don't know.

Just re-read your message, StripyMouse, and am wondering if I should have referred to reports of planned home labours rather than births. Can I ask if you actually gave birth at home, or if you had to transfer to hospital in the end? If the latter, how did you feel about it? I'm aware that transferring is always a possibility.

HD, I had a planned home labour with dd1, aiming for a home birth but after being fully dilated for many hours was transferred to hospital for ventouse. I definitely still felt it was worth it to have been at home all those hours though. and going into hospital at that stage was hard but not impossible. We do live very close to the hospital though, only a 5 min drive.

Similarly I was with my sister last year for her planned home birth, she transferred to hospital after 20 hours labour at home having only reached 5cm dilated, and ended up with forceps but like me the transferring wasn't the worst bit, and she was glad to have laboured at home til them.

99p shower curtain from Asda was what I used..lol and it was ideal.

Thanks for your reassurance, Fennel. And for your message too, 3GirlsMum

hewlettsdaughter: I didn't find the transfer too traumatic: the mw's were very good about the way that they 'facilitated' the decision, so that I agreed that we did need to go and felt positive about it ( I had been vehement about avoiding hospital), and I was really pleased that I had been at home for the majority of labour. The obstetrician admitted that if I had been in hospital, they would have insisted on a cs 'hours ago', but we managed with a ventouse, which I was happy about.

That's interesting, what the obstetrician said...

Oh yes, a torch - also for (sorry!) any postnatal stitches. We didn't have one and the midwife had to use an anglepoise lamp.

DP has now bought a torch and keeps it permanently on recharge, should I be worried?

And I tried for a natural third stage, couldn't produce anything, couldn't be arsed to keep going (adrenaline all gone, baby here) and had absolutely no qualms about cutting the whole thing short.

hewlettsdaughter, if you are interested in having some homeopathic remedies to hand Ainsworths here do a great birthing kit which contains arnica, but also loads of other remedies that can help speed up/slow down labour, counteract fear etc etc i found this kit v useful when i did my labouring at home. they do mailorder and have express delivery service...like blu i was transferred to hospital (after 37 hours!) but it was a great experience as i'd done all the hard work...was only in hospital for 4 hours!! hth