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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Home birth advice

36 replies

MrsBartlettforthewin · 05/01/2016 15:47

I'm due in about 6 weeks and really want a home birth. Would love to hear from experienced home birthers and what you found the most useful things to have to hand, how you prepped your home for it, and any thing else that you wish you'd know before hand.

Thanks.

OP posts:
LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 07/01/2016 15:57

lljkk - Were you warned in advance that this was their preference or was it a particular clinical nee? It's a very old fashioned view so I'd have been quite pissed off unless there was a specific reason. Hope it went ok on dry land. Smile

lljkk · 07/01/2016 16:07

oh yeah was explained, (lovely community MW who actually attend the HB) MW explained the concerns (being put to her by bosses) & I said it wasn't a big deal (it wasn't), I could accommodate. 15 yrs ago now.

Standing to deliver is the best, anyway Grin

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 07/01/2016 16:11

I could no more stand to deliver than fly to the moon (I also can't speak in advanced labour. My body seems to shut off a lot of functions!). I did a sort of very upright kneel leaning over the side of the pool both times. Grin

TheGreenNinja · 07/01/2016 16:14

I had two home births in a pool and needed very little outside the actual pool. We got a cheap shower curtain and old duvet covered with a sheet arranged for delivering the placenta and that was all we needed. I do know people though who had the pool and didn't check they had an adaptor to connect their tap to it, so then found they needed to fill it with kettle-fulls and pans of heated water! It took many many hours!

Scattymum101 · 07/01/2016 18:30

I couldn't have stood to deliver. I tried with dd1 but I was exhausted and my legs were shaking and I didn't feel I could push properly in that position.
Dd2 I delivered on my knees with my head resting on the side of the pool and had no control over the pushing, it was completely involuntary. I get the shakes very badly during labour so I'm safer not standing.

My problem is that I take a while to get past 4cm but my active labou both times has been less than 2 hours which is why I went for a home birth second time. I had a 36 hour latent labour with dd1 then a 2 hour active labour and with dd2 I had a 14 hour latent labour and 1hr 45 mins active labour so I found it really hard to gauge when things were ramping up enough to need assistance.

MrsBartlettforthewin · 07/01/2016 21:28

librariesgaveuspower that is why I initially started looking at home birth the idea of side of the road in a layby is terrifying. Please do tell me about your experience.

OP posts:
LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 08/01/2016 12:35

Sure Smile

I didn't actually have a particularly short labour. It was just that my first had been two days of irregular and unproductive contractions (before drip, yada, yada). So, when my next labour started the same, we thought I was in for more of the same. And I'd been told not to call out the mw's until I was 3 in 10.

I had a doula and 8 hours in had got to the point where I was exhausted, so got into the pool for a rest, with the intention of getting out again in an hour or so. Got in, waters went instantly. Yeay, we thought, can call the mw's. Then a few minutes later I was pushing.

The first thing to be aware of is that mw's are far less stressed about this eventuality than you are probably! Everyone I spoke to, then and post natally, said that, if babies come that fast, they are normally well positioned and healthy. Complications (unless, eg you have a history of pph) are pretty rare.

The first people to arrive were the paramedics. Don't panic, but if it happens they send two ambulances (because, if you were both in a bad way they'd want to transfer in two ambulances, with two teams to work on you). They would rather send one away quickly than not have it. So that's four paramedics.

One set left almost immediately, they didn't even come in the house. Just parked up outside. The others hung around to do the job of second mw for my mw, who turned up a few minutes later and did all the post birth checks and stuff. (Well, the woman did. The bloke went and sat and drank tea in the van as we didn't need three people) This was much better than if I hadn't planned a homebirth, as an unplanned homebirth in my area I would have had to go to hospital as a non emergency transfer.

It was all actually totally fine. Not ideal, but fine. And I didn't have time to be scared because I was so involved in what was going on.

For my next labour, it was all over my notes that they were not to demand regular contractions before they came out to me, and that they should come when we felt we needed them. They were true to their word, although my third was my first non back-to-back baby and everything was rather more text book. Smile

If you have any questions, happy to try and help. There's also a really good thread somewhere from women who've had very fast labours of what to do if you are alone - things like keeping your mobile charged and in your pocket and putting the door on the latch whilst you can.

MrsBartlettforthewin · 08/01/2016 15:53

thanks libraries. Interesting to know that they send two ambulances just in- case hadn't realised that which would probably freak my DH out if we were in that situation. Will try and find that thread about women who have fast labours.

OP posts:
LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 08/01/2016 16:11

Yes, that's why I thought I'd mention it. It doesn't mean that they think something is bad. It's just that they don't want to risk precious moments being lost if they originally dispatched one crew and had to call for back up.

Can't find the big thread, but Dinosnores gives a good list here

MrsBartlettforthewin · 08/01/2016 17:11

Thanks that is a good list Dinosnores has got there

OP posts:
DinoSnores · 08/01/2016 19:14

Glad it was helpful. Grin

(DC4 was born after a 33 minute labour, so might need that list again soon...)

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