Would you recommend a homebirth??

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

And do you end up dripping slime, goo and yuk everywhere????

yes and no

Whilst I was in the shower MWs cleaned up, remade bed and helped me get dressed and into my own clean bed with newborn, you cannot beat that.

I had my second baby at home in a pool.

I believe there was some degree of slime and detritus involved but as I'd just given birth I feel no guilt whatsoever about the fact Mr Inferior had to deal with it.

Just read about your tearing I had a bad second degree tear first time around, second time (the homebirth) baby was 3lbs heavier and I didn't have anything.

highly reccommend it!

I have had 4 hb, and 1 (my first) in hospital. I was treated well in hospital, but nothing compares to your own bath, bed and food! espexially when you are feeling a bit tired and vulnerable.

Have never made much mess, bar a few old towels to wash.

have had 2 both in pools (pics on profile)
would recommend it if you feel comfortable with it... It helped me feel incontrol of things.. I am a control freak!
I liked the fact the midwives were on my turf.
pool came with a disposable liner that got thrown away.

i loved my homebirth x x x x x x x amazing

and very little mess which was tidied straight away

I definitely feel I have made a much better, quicker recovery after this homebirth compared to my first 2 hospital deliveries. This is also the first time I have had no breastfeeding problems-maybe just a coincidence but I put it all down to the homebirth!

Can you remember at what stage you phone the midwives / they come round?

I called the maternity unit when we were having contractions at regular intervals with DS1 they then called the oncall midwife.

with DS2 we called the midwife directly as we knew her better and it was quite good as baby 2 arrived quickly

Hello. I planned to have a home water birth with my DD. It didn't work out as I had a 49 hour labour and as my waters had broken at the start, I had to go in to hospital after 24hours to be monitored for infection.

i HATED the hospital, they were busy and there were no bed on delivery, so I had to stay on antinatal ward til the very last min. Had loads of needles (my biggest phobia and main reason why I wanted a homebirth), was pretty much forced into having pethadine, which again, I didnt want. Nobody listened to me as to what I wanted, how much pain I was in etc. It was also dirty and I was ignored for hours. Basically, had a really bad experience, which is still with me and litterally gives me nightmares. I know this isn't always the case, but I have heard far more of these stories about hospital births than home births.

I would still plan a home birth with any future children, even though this one didn't work out.

Oh poo I hadn't thought about that - having made the decision and then not to be able to have it and end up with the other extreme must be really really tough

Despite the issue discussed in an unnerving degree of intimate detail on another thread, I LOVED my home births. I had four and I couldn't possibly consider doing it any other way. It has also made me feel good about myself years later. It gave me confidence and was such a great start to motherhood. A truly amazing feeling.

I'll always remember all of my births so clearly too as I had no drugs (which I think is fairly standard with home births.)

Ah yes - perhaps that's why I started my last post with those words!

My first one was a birth centre water birth with no drugs and I'm just really keen to get / guarantee the same or better experience with this next one. I hadn't banked on the fact that things may not go according to plan.....

p.s. did you end up with toothpaste all over your house??

Yes, definitely recommended - marvellous. And there is nothing like taking your newborn upto your own bed, gazing at him / her with a nice cup of tea - a moment I can still picture right now.....fabulous.

And the mess, yes - my dh mentioned the floaters, I still hate him for that.

But it was all in the pool and on a plastic sheet, easily cleaned up - especially not by you!!!!

No it was contained in the wipes as far as I can remember but one's never quite sure what's cleared up amongst the amniotic fluid and sundry birth detritus as one is in no fit state to do that particular bit of housework.

Recommend it every time.

Waters broke on moppable bathroom floor (very neat me ), placenta fell out on carpet due to me not bothering to put down the plastic stuff we had bought Stain came out very quick

I had two very good births - one hospital, one home. Would def choose home again next time

Yes, I would. I've had two home births and one in hospital. If you're worried about mess, big sturdy plastic tablecloths (available from department stores, French markets etc) are good. And at least at home it's all your own mess, not other people's.

DS2 and DS3 both have our home address as their place of birth. I'm reliably informed that birth within the catchment area doesn't help with school admissions. Still, I'm sure the birth certificate information will prove useful one day to the Blue Plaque people .

I'd love to have a homebirth next time around as i had a horrible hospital birth with dd. Only problem is I had some weird hallucination type things (possibly due to lack of sleep prior to the birth) after dd was born. And then i went on to have PND quite severely, so i'm not sure if it's generally advised to have a homebirth if you've experienced these things before. Does anyone know?

I had a long labour at home and was transferred to hospital when baby got distressed but would still say go for it and would love to try at home again!

total mis - I know that extreme tiredness can do funny things to your brain. It's easy to say get as much sleep/rest as poss before birth, but sometimes hard in practice.

DP called MW when I was hanging off dining room chair going it's ok only a BH. She arrived 20 mins later and about 10 mins after that the second MW arrived. They knew I would be quick as they all knew me and had been in my home and met everyone beforehand which is lovely. Felt so lovely having 2 MWs there just for me not having them rushing between 6 other women, must be good for them just to be able to focus on one person too, the way it should be.

What was also nice was that they were the CMWs that came out to visit in the next few days and we were able to talk about the birth etc which is what you don't really get in hospital as I never saw the same MW twice.

My MW has recommended shower curtains to help prevent any mess. Hoping for a homebirth this time after DS was born in hospital. Now 39+3 so waiting for the signs labour is imminent!

YES, YES, and YES

Look at my pic on the profile (DD3's birth) - no blood.

Walked upstairs after and delived placenta into loo.
No mess at all.

Bit of mess with DD2 but not much and was dealt with quickly as used those plastic decoraters sheets from homebase and old towels and sheets etc. By the time I was out the bath my room was back to normal.

Was the best thing I ever did, twice over!