Would you recommend home birth?

[Lizbiz89]

I'm pregnant with my 2nd child and I'm considering having a home birth. Either that or a water birth at a birth centre. I had a horrible birth with my dd. The usual induction drip, which led to horrendous pain and epidural, which finished with distressed baby, so had to have her delivered through forceps with episiotomy. Took a long time to mentally and physically recover. I would really like this birth to be a different experience. Please can ladies who have had home births let me know their experiences? Especially ladies who had their second babies at home. Thanks

I had my second baby at home - 33 years ago now. However my first labour had been uneventful. It was a good experience, although I never got the gas and air, she turned up too quickly! You do need to understand the risks - I remember my GP saying that a birth is only normal in hindsight.

I had my second baby at home (after a birth experience with my first that was much like yours by the sound of it!).

It was a completely different experience, I gave birth in a pool we bought, in our living room. Excellent midwife support, really positive experience.

I lived about 5 mins from the local hospital which was definitely a factor in my decision. I personally wouldn't do it if I lived far from a hospital in case things suddenly went wrong.

My first birth was exactly like yours. Just had Second baby yesterday.
I was induced with one gel. No drip. No epidural. No forceps. No cuts. Labour was 3 hours in pool at hospital so second labours can be so much better.
Do what feels right to you.

I’d really advise looking up Louise Pentlands videos on YouTube about her second birth at home and getting over the PTSD caused by her first delivery.

I plan to have a home birth, I'm pregnant with third, but after two high risk births I'm not getting my hopes up too much..
Interested to see what others think too

I liked my (3) homebirths but my first one (in hospital) wasn't terrible in any way.

I had my 2nd at home. 1st birth no complications. 2nd fine too. I would do it again if I had another

Congratulations @Curlypop!

I would recommend. I had DC1 in hospital. I refused intervention in accordance with hospital protocol (ensured baby was fine with monitoring). It would have been a very different experience had I not with episiotomy and forceps (two hour pushing then intervention as standard).

DCs 2, 3 and 4 were all homebirths. I had the most excellent midwife and after care.

I would say talk to your midwives and prepare for a HB. You can change your mind at any time.

(I did change my mind because I had a panic about having DC2 at home. I rang to go in and was told they were full, there were no beds and if I go I may end up delivering in the waiting area. So I went back to Plan A).

Had both mine and home and all being well will have my 3rs at home too. Both DH and myself were more relaxed, I laboured on my own in my own house and called the MW when I needes one, rather than having to be driven to hospital. Being in your own bed, choice of all clothes in the house, DH makes you a sandwich and cup of tea how you like it.... it's great. However, if you are at risk you may not be allowed to even consider it. The other thing to think about is how far away is the hospital in case of emergency transfer?

Had a hbac for my third (first was a vb in a MLU). Hb was simply amazing - much better than the MLU (and I would have scored the MLU 8 or 9 out of 10 anyway)! Mine wasn’t the calm hypnobirth people tend to associate with Home births (I have very speedy labours) but was a fab experience and the midwives were amazing

Congratulations @Curlypop! I didn't know they could induce using gel. Sounds like that's a bit more gentle then Syntocinon. I'm happy to hear everyone's births were much better second time. If I do go to birth centre I definitely would like a water birth. My hospital is only 10 mins away in good traffic so not too far. I'm currently doing an online hypnobirthing course to try and prepare myself a lot more this time. Hopefully that helps as well.

Yes and maybe not

It was incredible but consider the risk and how close you are to the hospital

Hypnobirthing really got me through DC4. She took an extra two weeks but when she decided to arrive she didn’t hang around. Was a bit touch and go that the MWs would make it on time (fri eve rush hour) but then it would have been worse if I had attempted to get to hospital.

My second birth was a home birth and it was a great for me, although it was an easier and much quicker birth than my first.

I would definitely recommend it, but I would also recommend being prepared that you might have to go to hospital WRT back up childcare and just generally, just in case. I didn't pack a bag, but all my stuff was in one place because I figured I'd need it anyway.

Own bed, brews on tap, perfect.

I had my first at home and also probably avoided what would have been unnecessary intervention based on timings.

I had a long pushing stage of nearly three hours but we were both coping well. In the MLU, I would have likely been transferred to delivery ward after 90 minutes and further intervention at 2 hours, according to their policies. Obviously I can’t say for certain that they would have intervened, but it seems likely from experiences of friends.

Planning my second at home too. I live a 2 minute drive from the hospital though which is/was definitely a big factor.

i had my second and third babies at home, and theres no comparison. It was just a much much better experience in every way.
However I did only live 5 mins from hospital and was prepared to go in f i needed to

If you book for a home birth you can change your mind at any time. If you don't you can find it tricky to have a home birth once you a further down the road

I’m on the fence. I had a great home birth with dd2 in most respects (though I lost a lot of blood and retained placenta so we had to blue light to hospital and stay in overnight). But shortly afterwards my lovely friend lost her baby (in hospital) due to a missed breech. Following that I would have been worried about being at home (even though the sad outcome in reality happened in hospital).

@EvaHarknessRose that's just made me feel ill. I ended up in hospital with an EMCS following 30 hours after waters had gone, merconium, and when we got to hospital they discovered he was actually breech. I'm waiting for it to dawn on me how wrong things could have gone. Needless to say I would still recommend HB provided you're confident (and you're 100% certain on baby's position!). The 30 hours I laboured for unused hypnobirthing and a TENS and it was so much more relaxed than I would imagine being in the hospital. I cried when I realised I needed to go in, cried calling the cab, and cried when I got to the hospital, and I was VERY prepared at the idea of having to transfer in and okay with it, but I think it was the tiredness and the feeling of losing control (especially when we got to the hospital and they said they would be putting me on the drip - the EMCS was actually a welcome suprise after that haha). Plan for a HB but make sure you know and are completely comfortable with the idea that it can quickly go to the other extreme. The fact I had prepared myself meant I haven't beaten myself up about it, which I know a lot of people do when their plans don't work out. Good luck in whatever you go with OP x

Thanks everyone! Yeah I'm going to keep very open minded about it but I also want to be completely in control of my decisions this time as that was taken away from me with my dd. I may use the birth centre as it is actually attached to the hospital but I would ideally prefer to be at home. I've had a few bad experiences in hospital so it makes me anxious just the thought of being in there. Would much rather be in the calmness of my own home.

I’ve had two MLU births and one home birth. Yes, I’d definitely recommend home birth, but I also had a super experience in the MLU. I had to transfer to hospital after the birth to get stitches which was a bit of a shame, but that’s really unusual.

There was a breech (undiagnosed) home birth in my area recently - all was fine.

I had my 4th at home. Mainly because number 3 was so fast I nearly had him on the side of the road.

It was a really good experience, I had 2 midwives and dh will me the whole time. Ds was posterior and came out facing the wrong way, it was probably the most painful of my labours. I laboured in the bath. The midwives were amazing, they stayed and made me cups of tea afterwards.

I had mostly fine experiences at hospital, first was induced (after PROM), one post birth complication (2nd, manual placenta removal in theatre), but nothing traumatising.

I can't recommend HB enough, especially for a second baby. My first was a good but very medicalised, intervention-heavy hospital birth. My second was a super-fast home waterbirth- truly one of the highlights of my life.

Yes! Highly recommend. Had dc3 at home and it was lush! Had a dominos pizza in my hand less than 1 hour after giving birth