switching to a homebirth at 29 weeks, first time experiences gratefully received

[iampgatlast]

hi there

i am 29 weeks pregnant and had a tour of my "wonderful" hospital yesterday. as soon as i walked into the delivery room i could feel myself starting to panic and shake. it was like a torture chamber!
the hospital was stuffy and i felt faint - basically the whole situation made me feel very uncomfortable.
i said from day 1 of my bfp i wanted a home birth but i let parents/friends/dp talk me out of it but after my reaction yesterday i am going to gun for one now!! by the way this is my first baby.
so...
does it matter if i change my mind at this late stage?
how did you cope with pain?
did you order a birthing pool?
any helpful tips?

thanks ladies

sorry i would just like to add that it is not the thought of labour that is making me feel nervy it was the actual conditions i would be giving birth in.

xx

It shouldn't be a problem changing. Not really that late on if you think about it, you still have 8 weeks until you can have a home birth.

Ds was born at home 10 months ago. We didn't have a pool due to living in a top floor flat in an old building with slightly dodgy, wonky floors. I did get into the bath when I went into labour but I got really annoyed as I couldn't get it deep enough to be on all fours and still cover my back which was where it hurt. Of course I realised afterwards that that wa never going to happen but at the time I just yelled at dp for not making the bath deep enough

I spent a while kneeling on the floor and leaning on dp but then I found I was most comfortable lying on my side so spent the reast of my labour like that in bed. After ds was born we had plenty of time for skin to skin and a first feed and then I went to have a shower while they weighed and measured him and changed the bed with dp.

I had ordered pethedine in case I needed it as obviously you can't know how you will deal with the pain but it stayed in the cupboard. The gas and air got a good beating though

The midwives do most of the cleaning up but dp did have to run afer me with a bucket and had a fair bit of sick to mop up before they arrived!

You don't need much though. B&Q do nice big plastic decorating sheets you can use to protect your floor/mattress then just use your oldest sheets/buy some in a charity shop. Apart form that have plenty of midwife strength tea handy and enjoy it.

thanks indith, lol at blaming your dp about the bath!!

do you have order pethidine yourself? or does the midwife do it?

do you know what equipment the midwife has to ressusitate the baby if he/she has breathing difficulties? i assume she has suction for gunge in the babies airway?

They give you a prescription and you pick it up from the chemists. If you don't use it then you return it to them.

The MW will only have the very basic stuff for the baby should anything go wrong.

BUT

They keep you monitored, check the baby's heart rate through the labour etc. In the vast majority of cases they will be able to tell if there is anything going wrong and will get you a transfer in plenty of time. Similarly one of the midwives will remain with you for a fair amount of time after the birth.

hi imapgatlast -

I did exactly the same with my first pg! Went on the hospital tour, felt completely suffocated by the clinicalness (and lack of windows!) of it all and decided there and then I wanted a hb. This was at 35 or 36wks. Talked to my mw, she said it would be fine, stuff was delivered a week later (and we had to go to the hospital pharamacy to pick up the pethidine) and it was all fine.

In the end I had to go into hospital anyway with high bp (which was actually fine too) but certainly it shouldn't be a problem to change yor mind now.

Good luck!

Message withdrawn

i have thought about a homebirth since the off....this will be my first too. Im 33+3 now, and the midwife dosnt bring round the bag of tricks until 37 weeks anyway, so you shouldnt have a problem.
I have spoken to the midwife about possible problems, she said they carry stuff for possible haemorge(sp?), enough to keep you stable while an ambulance is called if that was needed, and they set up a resuscitataion area for the baby as well. You have 2 midwives too..one when youre in established labour..and another one when youre baby is on its way..so there are 2.
Good luck and go for what you want.. MIght be worth getting your hubbie to look at this site www.homebirth.org.uk/, might make him feel more comfortable ...good luck xx

I can offer experience from both sides of the fence, I had my DD in hospital and my DS at home.

The hospital really wasn't bad, but it was nothing like having your baby at home. I had to ask if it was ok to open the window, was I allowed to have a cup of tea, could the lights go up/down etc. When you are at home you are AT HOME ie you can do what you want which goes a long way to making you feel more comfortable and relaxed in labour which imo is very important.

Speak to your midwife it should still be very easy to arrange, and good luck!

I had my first in hospital. I had really wanted a homebirth, which always seemed the obvious choice to me, but my then Dp talked me out of it
I've since had 2 homebirths which were amazing (painful, yes, but much more empowering somehow..hospitals make me feel very vulnerable), and I wish the first had been a homebirth too.
If your instincts tell you homebirth is for you, don't let anyone stop you

The community midwives started their on-call for me yesterday. Its my 1st baby too. I have a BPIB too, not had a practice run yet but can't wait! I have a TENS machine borrowed from a friedn who very wisely figured she only needed to have 2 babies to make it cheaper to buy than to rent! I am going to stock up on paracetamol. I have meptid if I need it which is similar to pethidine but doesn't make babies as sleepy which is good when you're at home. As I am also a midwife I know it works REALLY well I had problems getting it though which was odd. I made a normal appointment with the GP who then refused to prescribe it but said he would talk to the community midwives and sort it. This he did and MW said to collect from pharmacy on sat am. Went in and they didn't have it, they had my preescription but not the drugs - whoch had to be ordered and came from a town about 100 miles away! I've got them now though! MIL sorting out all her old towels and sheets for me (mine aren't that old), got decorating plastic from B&Q and lots of tea bags

i had my first baby at home a year ago and am sure i didn't decide until about 32 weeks. It was a bit of a struggle with the community mw's to start with but then i randomly got assigned one who was really pro homebirth and was amazing. I bought a pool and my ds was born in it, it was as wonderful as birth can be. I had a long labour but was so grateful (afterwards) that i had been at home, i think if i had been in hospital i would have ended up with every intervention going. I also had a doula, and if you can possibly afford one it is really worth it, you might be able to get a trainee for free! look at doula.org.uk Our doula was such a reassuring presence when the mw wasn't around in the long hours of waiting for the second stage to kick in (the mw came and went and was with me the last 4 hours, i was in labour 27 hours in all). Apart from being amazing for me, she was great for my dh who was understandably anxious and tired!
All the very best to you
oh and let us know when the LO is arrives!

sorry forgot to say that re pain relief - my mw didn't let me have G&A til i was pushing (i had been begging for it for about 3 hours!!) and she was wise because at that moment it really made all the difference, i thought it was great! Not to make you nervous but make sure they bring enough so you can have it if they need to stitch you after - mine ran out which wasn't very pleasant at all..
and my mw was very against giving my pethidine - saying (in all seriousness) "do you really want to give your baby class A drugs?" - kind of put me off...

thank you all for your messages and reassurance.

skidaddle - the hospital tour is definately not the one is it?! i was shocked at how some rooms didnt even have windows too!! and the heat in the place was unbearable. i have a mw appt at 32 weeks and didnt think i would be able to change thatlate in the day but have been trying to contact mw and it goes to answer phone everytime - i hope this isnt a sign!! its reassuring to know you changed so late in the day.

claraenglish - thanks for the advice on the pool i have been looking into that already i shall probably buy one, just out of curiosity can you remember where you got yours from? its so expensive to hire!

beller - thanks for the link to the website its very informative, i hope your hb goes well and you getthe experience you are after. please come back and let us know how you get on

loopsymummy - thanks for your advice too, i am not too fussed abou actually using the pethidine as i have heard from a lot of people it has a nasty side effect of making you sick and also makes the baby dopey but its nice to have as much at hand as possible so just in case it is needed and i am at my wits end with pain. thanks for the link to bpib they are my first choice at the moment for birthing pools.

sherby - thanks for sharing your experiences too. dp has it planned we will watch a numerous dvds and he can relax with a lager

liz79 - thats interesting what you say about the meptid i shall have to look into that. i hope your homebirth goes well and i hope you can come back and share your story? how far gone are you?

cheritongirl - thanks for your advice too, a lot have people have reccommended a doula but i am going to have my mum and nan at home with me (their decision) OUCH at the gas and air running out in the middle of the stitches. a friend of mine who had a little girl recently told me the stithes were worse than the labour itself

thank you all again xxx

great that you are having your mum and nan there, if you can relax with them then that is ideal! Yeah, somehow the stitches seemed worse, i think because you think its all over, but its not quite!
I got a BPIAB - was much cheaper than hiring and was great, my DH would just say DO get the electric pump to empty it, not a very pleasant job esp when you are knackered!
All the best

Message withdrawn