Low intervention - homebirth

[thismonthsfad]

Hi. Just wondering if any ladies are currently pregnant and planning a homebirth?

I have self referred and noted on my form that I’ll be having a homebirth. I have my first booking appointment in 2 weeks.

Just looking for some positive stories on the process so far and how to navigate avoiding landing on the intervention conveyor belt.

not looking for opinions from people who are against homebirth/haven’t experienced it

As I said. I didn’t get mine because he was dead.

your sympathy is palpable.thanks so much.

This is crazy - where have I said this? I asked a question to women who have experienced homebirth as that is my plan.. Please where have I said this "this is how it will absolutely be unless there's an emergency and I will not waiver in 9 months"

I have said several times here now that I didn't think that I would need to explain every single comprehensive scenario that I have considered. Just because I didn't type this in my initial question doesn't mean that I haven't thought about it!! You have assumed this and then insulted me by calling me niave!

@thismonthsfad Go for it have a strong mind set on achieving this goal, and have a plan B.

What you do need to get your head arounds how extremely painful child birth is, and have a strong understanding of self pain management.

what i mean by that is accepting the pain as a contraction washes through you, and not clenching up.

And also the best and least painful methods once in delivery stage.

I myself was not allowed to deliver home but i had natural births at hospital. With no pain relief..

i found standing up pacing around and not lying prone helped gravity work and pushed two babies out standing upright, and then falling in to a squat.

but one needs to build up lower body strength.

read read read and then do some more OP of luck !!!!

Exactly. I’m not against home birth in the right circumstances ( btw you have no idea yet if you are low risk OP) .
An emergency can be spotted and hopefully averted, unless of course your midwife isn’t allowed to touch or examine you!
Poor baby , it’s all about mum from day one.

Love this! Thank you for sharing this with me.. It's lovely to hear that there are midwives out there with the skillset to recognise the mothers body language, I really hope I am blessed to have a midwife like this who is fine with a handsoff observational approach.

ALSO (sorry 🤣) just another tip - you won’t know how you will feel in labour, it gets all women differently. You might say you don’t want to be touched but then you’ll get someone’s hand and hang onto it for 6 hours. Or you might want massage but then yell at anyone who comes near you.
Try to take it as it comes 🙂

Birth position too….i find that women will labour in all varieties of positions, but when that head is crowning they are generally either on their back or all fours by their own choice.

Where you said "100% yes! Made up my mind before I even conceived" I, and lots of other posters took that to mean a 100% decision is made this is how it will be. Further posts you said "I will do X, my husband will do Y". It read as absolutist.

I have since acknowledged that you have backtracked on that and said you aren't as fixated on my way or the highway as you originally appeared to be and I am glad to hear it. For your sake.

Will you be attending your NHS scans? Specifically, the 13 and 20 week ones?

Maybe not for your first birth but go for it for your second birth etc.
Of course do whatever makes you feel comfortable but I think first time births can just be quite intense and overwhelming.

When I asked my first midwife advice about what to put in my birth plan, she told me the best thing was to keep an open mind and don't rule anything out as you never know what will happen. Those were very wise words from a very experienced woman.

You also said you had 3 live births so you could share that experience with OP rather than trying to guilt her about your baby. This is OPs thread, not yours, and you’ve made your point now. I also had a baby who was stillborn and the idea of a home
birth with little intervention is crazy to me, but throwing my own grief in a pregnant ladies face would be incredibly unfair. She’s said she would adapt her plan if needed.

I tried really hard not to say anything more than things might go wrong until the op shouted at me.

Thank you for sharing this lovely story of your experience x

You want stories from people who've planned no intervention home births - I would genuinely recommend having a careful read of this https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/nov/22/free-birth-society-linked-to-babies-deaths-investigation

It's clear it's your first baby OP and I don't think calling people who are trying to help you clowns is very kind. No one on this thread is saying your shouldn't try for a homebirth if that's what you want but, unfortunately, you seem to be adamant nothing can go wrong. I had a very hands off experience in hospital, even although I was classed as high risk and had a consultant led birth. For the most part he did not even speak to us but when my baby was in distress and needed an assisted delivery as her heart was so slow, I was extremely grateful to have such lovely people around me monitoring me so well.

What happens if stitches are needed. How will the midwife do that without touching you.I had stitches with both of mine and thought it was fairly standard?

Thank you! I 100% agree with you! Some of this comments are insane! Quick to ask 'what if it all goes disastrously wrong' but never ask 'what if it works out beautifully'... I am positive by nature because I don't live my life in fear - but people on here have assumed that to be naivity or lack of education of the horrors of birth... I am optimistic and planning for the best case scenario, I will maintain and have an open mind to other possibilities though x

Reported.
Disgusting.

I am a senior midwife who has had 3 homebirths. Brilliant, all of them. Do try and work with your midwives - they have the skills through gentle, skilled examination and assessments to work with you to use natural techniques and midwifery practices take a labour that is potentially going array and to get it back on track to maximise your chance of a physiological birth. I am seeing increasing trends for a "leave nature to it" approach, as pendulum swing back from over intervention (which is rife) but this has lead to a lot of complication which could have been avoided with a little sensitive proactive intervention (biomechanics, position changes etc) at the right point in labour. Humans are not designed to birth alone or without the wisdom of women who have attended hundreds of births- we are a midwifery dependent species. Good luck, keep an open mind, put down control, and flow into the birth your baby needs. That is where a positive empowering birth lies, whatever or wherever that needs to be.

Remains pertinent to the belief that you can assume in advance that a birth will be uncomplicated (esp with an older mum), and that just by intuition with no examination you know when things are going well/badly (which you don't, CTG is a wonderful thing)