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!

Maybe there's a thread on natural or managed third stages somewhere? I had bad afterpains with dd2, they are supposed to get worse with each birth, but have heard that having a natural 3rd stage makes for less painful afterpains. does anyone know?

A bit off-topic, sorry.

I had a natural Third Stage with baby no4 but it made no difference to the afterpains. My mw's said that the ap's tend to get worse the more babies you have, which was certainly the case for me.

MI, I've got a torch, and have now given DH instructions to buy spare batteries
Thanks for info, sophable. Re the third stage, there's this thread , started by secur.

Thanks for the link, HD. still can't see which is better on this.

oh well, have not been in a fit state to know or care what they did at this stage the last 2 times so don't know why I think I will care this time!

Suedonim