Homebirth - where exactly at home does it happen...

[nh101]

...in the sitting room (ie on the floor) or the bedroom (on the bed)?

Please clear up this dispute I am having.

anywhere you want to..

most of the women i know who;ve had one , if not had a birth pool, have given birth on the bed..which has been covered with old towels/ sheets/ plastic sheets

totally up to you

who are you having a dispute with??

Mine was in a brithing pool in my bedroom

In a pool in my playroom

in a pool in my bedrrom [nostalgic]

Hi lulumama! Just this person at work - I am fact-checking an article at the moment on home births which says "more women than ever are choosing to give birth in their own sitting rooms". The person who wrote it is not here but I said "surely that should be bedrooms" but my colleague (childless) said "no, it is in the sitting room or your bed gets wrecked, and it needs to be a hard surface."

I was pretty sure people didn't usually give birth on their sitting room floors!

Not had one personaalt but friends who have have had one on the stairs, one by front door (not meant to be homebirth - she left it too late, DH and M were trying to get her in the car!!)one on the sitting room floor (on a rug that looks like a target) It's your house, do it wherever you like.

well, the MW brings Inco pads, and you are encouraged to have old towels and stuff that you don;t mind getting ruined

if labour allows you to move, i imagine you would move to some where comfy, or you deliver where you are !

you can give birth on your bed, on your sofa, lying on the floor....the surfaces are covered with absorbent stuff

women don;t give birth only on a hard surface in hospital !

nh101 - a woman might feel more comfortable giving birth in her sitting room, because if there is a problem, and she has to be rushed to hospital, she doesn't have to go down the stairs first.

Also a ground floor room may support the weight of a birthing pool better then an upstairs room.

There are loads of waterproof coverings you can get to protect the bed/sofa.

Hi,

was planning to give birth in a pool in the front room but by the time it was filled I couldn't get downstairs so had DS on my bed. Absolutely refused to lie down though, found it really uncomfortable!

"women don;t give birth only on a hard surface in hospital "

That's what I said!!

Thanks for all your quick replies - MN is great.

ds2 on my bedroom floor
ds3 on the sofa in the living room.

I just happened to end up there on both occasions but was very aware that the sofa wasn'tthe best place when DS3 was aboutto make his appearance and ds1 or 2 would have been getting out of bed at any time in the next few minutes.
The sofa faced the stairs and my bare bum was up in the air also facing the stairs....I think it would have truamaised them to see that first thing in the morning.

dd1 was born in hospital on a fairly hard bed

glad to be of service, ma'am > hope you are ok x

Sitting room floor here - I needed to be kneeling leanign against the sofa. Not enough floor space in the bedroom!

Planning on pool in the sitting room.

Oh I can't wait!!!

Thanks Lulu, I am OK, went through a tough time for a couple of months after my miscarriage (in March) but am feeling much better now and trying again so I am sure there will be good news for me soon!

fingers crossed for you , NH101..xx

I went to a homebirth support group meeting on Saturday and someone asked this. The MW said that surprisingly few women give birth on the bed - many prefer to be squatting/kneeling, and that leaning over the sofa is a popular choice

I think leaning over the sofa would be my second choice.

I've had three in the sitting room (on the floor) and one in the bedroom (on the bed) but I moved around all over the house in labour before finally settling where I did.

I prefer the sitting room as I like standing up for most of the time or leaning on furniture. In fact, the one I had on the bed was unsatisfactory because I didn't like NOT feeling earthed. It was too bouncy and unstable on the mattress and I felt stranded up there and wished I'd done it on the floor again.

bathroom for my planned home birth (and for my unplanned one!). I had expected it to be the bedroom, but I was in the bath and realised I wasn't going anywhere!

My birthing pool was in the conservatory and I had 3 weeks of floating around with a book every evening! The kids enjoyed it too.

However I had to transfer to hospital and we forgot to put the cover on - 5 hours later came back with baby to a conservatory full of condensation! It was dripping off the ceiling!

I'm planning on pool in dining room (originally wanted to use pool in spare bedroom but joists aren't strong enough for the weight of the water).

Well I tried to imagine it in both rooms. On the day we put the shower curtain down with sheets on top, in the living room. But I ended up in the bedroom somehow, I think after trying the bath and suddenly being in transition...I really couldn't have got downstairs and didn't want to because it seemed safer and more private in my bedroom...was 10am and all the midwives etc. going in and out the front door, postman coming, etc. I just was happier being out of reach of that.
Ended up kneeling next to bed, leaning on bed, sadly nobody could get under me to put down a sheet by then, so we had to try and get the blood out of the carpet afterwards but it was worth it!