Home birth with first baby

[Didi1994]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone had any advice for home birth with my first? Lots of people look at you like you're a bit mad when you say that's what you're planning! We live 5 miles from hospital but hoping to hypnobirth and have water birth at home. I have heard that quite often the NHS will okay you for a home birth but try and back out very last minute saying there will be problems providing two midwives because of their rota etc... anyone had any experience of this? Thanks :)

Given how thinly stretched NHS resources are and how often units in hospitals have to close their doors, I wouldn't be assuming a unit saying they don't have enough staff is an excuse.

OP if you want OOH birth and don't want to risk this happening at the last minute, have you thought about a standalone MLU? One of the ones not attached to a hospital. Several of them in the UK are actively underused, and they hardly ever seem to have to turn women away for staffing reasons. They also have lower transfer rates iirc.

Just popping in to say that people think women haven’t done their research and there is some great
Stuff here op to help you. For low risk first time mothers home birth is often recommended. I’m a second time Mum high risk (previous c section) and I’m opting for home birth (I have done lots and lots of research into this, have a plan, a midwife team I trust and a horrific experience with the hospital from last time). The two things I want to address are firstly that someone commented that there is no proven disadvantage to being on your back (yes there is, it reduces pelvis size by 30% - good luck getting a baby out of that!), it also reduces oxygen to the baby and you don’t have the massive helping hand of gravity.

And secondly I have to address sycamore. Across the journey of my pregnancy she has turned up on any thread of this type and is active most days saying the same stuff and with a proper hatred of midwives. I actually find it so upsetting how clear and corrupt her agenda is that I plan to report her to Mumsnet. She’s been on these boards doing this for a very long time - who haunts boards and scaremongers first time mothers for gods sake? Nobody should say a baby will die because of your decision etc and yet I’ve seen her say this. Sycamore if you’re reading this please, I urge you to get professional help as you clearly have some issues and should be seeking advice from a professional to help you, not being strange on these boards at all hours of the day and night trying to scare others

Our midwives are VERY supportive of hb in our area. Cheaper for the nhs. I had my first in a midwife led unit and had planned a home birth with my second but ended up being induced. Go for it!

For me, lying on my back made the contractions much more painful. If I had to lie on my back the whole time, I would definitely have needed an epidural.

Me, to. My first labour didn't really hurt much at all, but I was tired at one point and lay down on the sofa on my back for a rest. When the next contraction hit, I screamed and jumped off the sofa. If I'd been on my back and having that level pain the whole time, I'd have been begging for an epidural within half an hour rather than never really reaching a point where it was worse than bad period pains.

Although I've read that some women with back to back labours will instinctively lie on their backs when the baby is coming, and that this seems to work best for them.

Ladypug - there is no evidence that lying on your back changes outcomes, regardless of what common sense might suggest!

common sense suggested to obstetricians that routine episiotomies would reduce birth injuries...we now know differently.

I'm not suggesting all women will want to lie on their backs or should or anything like that, just that lying on your back isn't associated with increased risk of interventions.

Majority of transfers to hospital are for pain relief for first time mums and in that case MLU wouldn't be able to provide anything that you can't get at home once in active labour.

Hey Aloysha I think there is lots of research for this actually, I’ve been told by two doulas, three midwives and my consultant that it’s correct and I’m pretty sure I’ve read in numerous books (pretty sure it’s in the positive birth book and a few others). Link to an article about it here which is interesting: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4164173/

Wish someone had told me in first
Labour, I was encouraged to lie on my back, baby turned back to back and despite getting to 6cm quickly and happily during active labour, labour stalled immediately, pain ramped up and ended with epidural so I think it’s pretty concrete

@Herculesupatree I think the breastfeeding help depends on your hospital and health visitors. My friends who wanted to try had horrible breastfeeding 'helpers' in hospital that didn't ask for permission before grabbing their boobs and were quite rough with them. The midwives helped me before they left, the one that came the next day sat with me on the sofa and helped me for ages while doing her checks, then the health visitor was really nice and the local family centres were so helpful. My friends who chose to continue breastfeeding after the initial upset got much more support from the family centres.

I had a homebirth with my first and it was ghastly.

I would never recommend it for a first labour because you’ve got no idea how painful you will find it. I’m still in favour of home birthing for subsequent labours, just not for the first time.

My plan was to transfer in if I needed more pain relief but what actually happened is that I went into a very strange mental zone where I couldn’t bear the idea of being moved, so I never asked. I gradually became less and less ‘with it’ due to the pain, the gas and air, and sheer exhaustion, so wasn’t capable of a rational decision.

I don’t think anyone realised quite how distressed I was because I was using hypnobirthing strategies and trying to be calm and relaxed. By the later stages I was just too exhausted to communicate properly.

I also found that the midwives had a strict timeline from transition to delivery, and because I was getting close to that there was a lot of hassle and stress to push the baby out before I was naturally ready. So no urge to push or anything, and I tore quite badly. There was a lot of stress and the ambulance driver ringing my doorbell to transfer me. I agreed to an episiotomy out of desperation and eventually managed to deliver at home. I needed transferred in the end anyway due to meconium and because the midwives didn’t feel confident to do my stitches.

I wonder if I’d been in a midwife led unit or delivery ward and had been given longer for baby’s head to engage properly before pushing if I could have delivered with fewer injuries. I still get irritation from my episiotomy scar 5 years later.

The contrast between my mental state at that delivery and my second child’s birth (with epidural) still makes me a bit sad. My eldest loves to hear how her dad cried happy tears when she was born, but I can’t tell her my experience because I was just totally numb and emotionless. The happy tears flowed freely second time around and it was the loveliest experience.

@LadyPug well said 👏🏼

The positive birth book is not evidence. You're on stronger ground with the NCBI link!

Hahaha no I know it’s not but I can’t remember any of the books I’ve seen it in, seen it in loads of places, read lots by aims etc but the only one I’m definite about is that one as just finished it. She probably would have referenced where it came from actually. It’s a thing though, and it’s actually really common knowledge!