The thread for first time home birthers (or thinking about it) - over here!

[Boobz]

I only just found out I was pregnant 10 days ago, and it is of course early days, but I have been doing a lot of research and am seriously thinking of having a home birth.

I'm a member of my Due March '09 ante natal club thread, but I don't want to go on about home birthing there where the majority will be planning a hospital birth (don't want to bore them!) I'd like to start this thread for all those people who'd like to talk about the pros and cons, planning, expectations and realities of home births, especially if it is your first baby, or first home birth.

Has everyone else's other halves been fine at the thought of a first baby HB? Or did you have to do some convincing?

A

Ina May was my 'doula' during that experience. i kid you not and I am not the sentimental / airy fairy sort. I am v. practical minded. She has a section of the book where she talks of 'let your monkey do it'. From I read that line I kept thinking and smiling at it, putting my faith in it, and it worked! The other line I felt inspired by is the first time birther story who said to herself for weeks before giving birth, 'I am going to open this big'. ie, bigger than the baby's head.

My first labour in hospital was such a bad experience, the only reason I would transfer would be a c/s. NO way would I ever labour in a hospital again. I suffered PTSD from the first experience and when the MW sent me to hospital for a scan at 37 wks because she thought there was malpresentation, I was already in tears and falling into emotional pieces by the time I got home and phoned my dh at work.

Well done Foxy! What a HB story! I'm so pleased for you and your family!

I wanted a home birth with DD2 but planned for a hospital delivery as dh was terrified. However we were given no choice when dd2 turned up 31st July. Labour was 45 mins and had no chance to get out of bath, nevermind to hospital. DH delivered Rose in our bath. It was a wonderful experience, just the 2 of us. If I had another DC i would definately Plaan for a home birth. A very special experience.

Ohhh Foxy, congratulations again, what a wonderful birth story, apart from the hairline fracture of dd1's leg, poor little lamb! Welcome to the world little Alice!!

Worked out on Friday that baby is breech.. MW checked and it has been confirmed by scan.

With PE and a footling breech a C-section is looming... they will try to turn baby on Tuesday but if baby is distressed or my BP is high, it's likely to be delivered on Tues by CS

Hello there! Just joined this thread on the recommendation of CriCri (thank you!) Spent the whole weekend reading it from the beginning. Fascinating stuff!
Foxytocin - your birth story is simply amazing. Truly inspirational.
I'm 35+4, and only decided a week ago that a HB was what I wanted. I think it's been a gradual enlightenment process for me - NCT certainly made me feel differently about the whole medicalised environment. I am lucky in that my hospital have both a midwife-led Birth Centre and a labour ward, but they are also very supportive of HB in our area.
I contacted the Head of Midwifery at my hospital last week, and she was brilliant. I should be having a MW visiting me at home sometime this week to discuss the details. DH is fully supportive, and I just hope the final few weeks of this pregnancy don't present any problems which mean a HB is out of the question.
Haven't actually told any of my family or friends yet. Am nervous of loads of negative (and uninformed) comments. It's weird, one of my BF's had all 3 DD's at home and I used to think she was mad. Only through research over the past few months have I changed my view. So I will fully expect some stupid comments from e.g. MIL. But hey-ho!

AJM, I hope that the baby turns or that the ECV works tomorrow, so that you can at least avoid a c-section if not get a homebirth. HUGS

MonkeyMargot!! Good to see you here! I made the decision to have a homebirth quite late, about 30 weeks. Like you, I was expecting negativity from family & friends but although some thing I am mad, they have not been unsupportive. I guess they have come to expect the unexpected from me! How exciting that you have a midwife visiting you this week. I am seeing my midwife today (36+5) to hopefully get the go ahead as they have tried to throw some obsticals in my way. The only thing that they can possibly use now is my HB level, but it is a risk to me, not baby, so I fully plan on going ahead. I had better be told yes as the midwives would go on call from Wednesday when I am 37 weeks until 42 weeks. I am really excited!

Hi HeartMum!! Wow - it's so close for you! Hope you get a positive response from the MW today - best of luck with it!!

well done Foxy - hope all hte offspring now doing well.

I wanted to say hello

waves

I am 31 weeks, due on 28th November with my first and hoping for a HB. My first MW appointment at which I raised the idea of having a HB was met with, not negative, but lukewarm-ish response. I subsequently discovered that, although based in a different London Borough, the "Albany Midwives" (more info below) were on my doorstep, and I called and asked if I could join their waiting list. I discovered in June that I had made it on to their list (yay!).

The Albany are self-employed midwives which are contracted by Kings Healthcare Trust (SE London) to cover a percentage of their NHS cases. I have joined them as an NHS patient (I don't think they do private work anyway).

Their ethos is that childbirth should be as non-medicalised as possible unless indicated and above all should be led by patient (mother's) choice. They have something like a 50-60% HB rate (compared with less than 2% of normal population) and that is in a "challenging" population demographic (a lot of poverty, urban deprivation etc).

So far my experience with them has been 100% positive and they are wholly behind a home birth plus they guarantee that I will always see the same midwife and she will guarantee to be there at the birth. (they work on call 24/7 for 9 months of the year and then have 3 months off to make this rota work).

Anyway, I sound like an advert for them! But basically it makes me really REALLY angry when I see the hassle some of you are going through to get a HB and I am getting extremely militant about it all!

Welcome reluctantincubator! I am really excited for you and a tad jealous as I feel like I am being made to jump through hoops, not easy at 2 days short of 37 weeks!

I have not long got back from a midwife appt and am rather annoyed right now. I am 36+5 and she says the obstetrically there is no reason I can't have a homebirth but she needs it to be ok'd my my OB. I was originallt refered to an OB because I was classed as "high risk" because my ds2 was born with congenital heart disease, but not diagnosed until 9 months. This OB was as much use as a chocolate teapot when I needed a referal to Birmingham Women's fetal medicine dept and we had a big falling out and I specifically asked not to be called back at 28 weeks. There is NO WAY I will be turned down by that bloody woman now, especially as baby is classed as full term on Wednesday and the midwives go on call. Thankfully my midwife must know that it stands a good chance of being granted (even if it only to shut me up or get rid of me) as she is coming later in the week to bring my box of stuff and do the risk assessment. I am now wishing I had the money for an independant midwife, I bet I wouldn't have had any of this hassle. I know a woman who is about to have another homebirth (her 3rd or 4th I think) even though she has clots on her lungs, severe SPD and needs to take heparin to thin her blood. Seems a tad unfair that they don't want me to have one even though my baby has been proven to be perfectly healthy on 4 seperate occassions .

Maybe the midwife was not impressed that I forgot my green notes?! Opps! I packed them in the hospital bag I took on holiday and as I haven't unpacked the bag, the notes are still there. I am supposed to be going to the OB's clinic a week tomorrow as they couldn't get me in tomorrow, but that puts me at 37+6 when I would be entitled to a homebirth from 37 weeks, so have been trying to call the secretary since I got in with no luck. Guess I will have to try from tomorrow afternoon as she has a clinic at my local hospital tomorrow morning.

Hey reluctant -- I know about the Albany Midwives and am on their waiting list too. I read about them at around the time that I decided I wanted to go down the HB route, so I called them up and put myself on their waiting list. I also went to one of their ante natal classes to introduce myself, even though there is no guarantee that I will get on their books.

Anyway, I then had to transfer from George's to Tommies (I live in Streatham) and am now with the Valley team at Gracefield Gardens and am in love with my midwife and am super confident they will do all they can to give me a great homebirth. I had practically forgotton about Albany now as I have had such a good experience with the Tommies Valley team, and wonder if I suddenly find out they had a place for me, whether I would take it or stick with where I am? I think I will stick with it here actually - but I would love to hear about your Albany experience when the time comes!

x

hi heartmum and boobz,

HM - one thing that I do feel strongly about (having once, in the dim and distant past, been married to a doctor who was a w*nker) is that some of them are self-important tossers with inflated senses of their own usefulness and scant regard for patients feelings, opinions and choices. I am really glad you feel strongly enough about it to insist. I know its scary to stick up for your own rights if people in authority are trying to scare you into fitting in with their plans, but it sounds like you have every reason to be confident that you and your soon to be born baby will be fine with a home birth. Most docs spend five years at medical school and about five seconds scanning your notes - so you will know your own history better than they will.

Boobz - I will absolutely post up when the time comes! Are the valley team also able to offer one-to-one care and continuity? That was the biggest thing for me, knowing that I would know who my midwives were before the time came and therefore (in addition to getting on with them) that the MW in attendance were experienced home-birthers.

does anyone know if you're rhesus negative what that means if your baby is born positive? I know you need to have the follow on anti-d injection, am assuming if this was an issue at a HB my midwives would have said something, but it's not been mentioned and just occured to me...

I think IIRC that it is generally only a problem with second births onwards, so if this is your first then it should be OK - but I would get a proper opinion - my immunology is very rusty!

Hi, can I join?

VERY tentatively considering it for 2nd DC, due end of March after fine, but very long and medicalised birth of DS1 in Belgium. (bloody grateful for the medicalisation but prob a second one would go a bit quicker than 3 days!)

Living in the Netherlands, where it is very much encouraged (35% home births here), and they assure me the risk is the same as hospital and that they would get you to a hospital within 15 mins.

I am basically trying to get hold of reliable data about the risk of the baby suffocating or whatever during the birth, and whether it is really the same with home birth, as instinctively you assume that they could do more in a hospital.. does anyone have any info?

you could have a look here www.homebirth.org.uk/ where they have a page linking to and summarising the evidence.

From my own research I am convinced that (for a low risk birth) HB is as safe as hospital and much less likely to end up with an intervention such as ventouse or forceps. So far as I can see, one or two (now quite old) trials which threw homebirth into doubt (from a safety point of view) were not properly designed and therefore the results cannot be relied on and were almost certainly flawed in their conclusions.

of course there are some extremely rare complications for which emergency intervention is required. In these situations being in hospital may mean you get more prompt intervention. But, there is a school of thought that hospitals are far too quick to intervene when it is not necessarily indicated, and that one minor intervention turns into another and another (with increasing risk of complications each time) until you end up with a "cascade" of intervention which ends up with a major intervention such as a C-section.

I could go on all day but all the info is on that site, so there's no point in me waffling on [

Hi all, ECV was successful after an hour of v. uncomfortable manipulation. Homebirth back on as long as I go to hospital for an hours monitoring at the first sign of labour.

Hoping that a consultant will lift that restriction next week when they repeat the scans and sign off the ECV

Yay ajm! Sorry it was uncomfortable, but hurrah that the baby's no longer breech really hope it stays put the right way round for you.

GWTMH - I am rh negative and asked midwife whether there were any implications for homebirth. Basically it doesn't matter - You will have had the anti-D injections and after the birth they will test the blood from the umbilical cord to find out whether baby is negative or positive. If positive then you have to have a further anti-D after the birth - this is to protect a second baby in case you have built up antibodies. If negative then I don't think you need the further anti-D anyway.

that's great new ajm!

Hi
I really wanted a home waterbirth with my 3rd child, after a hospital water birth with my 2nd. However, I have had a lot of problems with blood pressure and possible pre eclampsia over the last 3-4 weeks and so its been completely ruled out - I can't even have a hospital water birth and will probably end up being induced. Babys due in 5 days, and I'm praying I go into labour naturally before then, to at least have some control over the experience!
Good luck and stick to your guns, I had to keep saying every step of the way that I wanted a home birth.

Oh Maximole so sorry to hear that.

I had the same problem last time and ended up induced. I was threatened with it this time too but have managed to get away with it so far so I know how disappointing it is.

I hope your baby decides to come on its own and you avoid the induction.

I'm glad the ECV was successful AJM, but sorry it was uncomfy. Hopefully baby will stay head down and you can still have your homebirth.

Maximole, I am sorry but at least hope baby decided to make an appearance naturally so you can avoid induction.

Just a quick question. How much entinox does your hospital allow at a homebirth?

I've got 4 small cannisters, one half empty. When I asked about the empty one I was told that was an extra as they only allow 60 mins worth at a homebirth and have also dropped the policy where Dads could pick up more from the hospital if necessary.

Hello All, not posted on here for a while but:

HOMEBIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

Baby girl born incredibly quickly at 11.21pm on Sunday 05 October, AT HOME!!!!! 7lbs, 1 oz and totally gorgeous! Name not totally finalised yet but we are nearly in agreement

Gory details: Contractions started at 4.30 on Sunday morning and were fairly light until the afternoon when I started getting a few that had me leaning on the wall by around 6pm. They then got a bit more intense and we were using the contraction timer thingy and they appeared to be between 3 and 4 minutes apart but only a few were a minute long or more so we assumed they would take a while to even out. I had my tens machine on and found that it worked really well but we decided to call the midwivess at 8pm 'cos the pain was getting quite intense. She said to monitor things for a couple of hours and call again.

Well, those 2 hours were the most intensely painful of my life! I only had the tens on level 3 'cos I assumed there were 10 hours or so to go and I wanted to keep some in reserve - if only I'd known the truth I would have turned that dial right up!!! By 10pm I was all over the place and felt like pushing! This can't be right, I thought... Anyway, spoke to midwife who set off and was with us by 10.30. She calmed me down a bit and eventually examined me and said I was 9cm dilated already and my baby would be out in 20mins or so! I cannot tell you the joy I felt on hearing those words because I was on the point of demanding to go to hospital and have an epidural... Anyway, my waters broke and things really kicked off and I had to try so hard not to push whilst the last cm gave way, no time for any gas & air though - yikes! DP was absolutely fantastic and really helped me to focus on the breathing. Then, the pushing - my god, all these stories of "breathing" the baby out, no chance. 2nd midwife arrived in time for the crowning and she helped me to pant/cough the baby out and wow - out her popped her head swiftly followed by the rest of her and she was put on my tum! What a feeling that was, amazing. She cried straight away and was so cute.

And that's where things went a bit wrong... I wanted a physiological 3rd stage and we tried it but I had no contractions left. So I tried to squat over a bucket and literally passed out! I had lost a load of blood... They gave me the injection and when I came round I managed to push out the placenta. After that, I needed stitches (2nd degree tear but not so bad...) which was pretty awful but ok. Then I tried to get up and was just so out of it, I didn't manage at all. In the end, the midwives were not happy about leaving me and we agreed to go into hospital. So, ambulance arrives and I get whisked off and just as well 'cos I nearly passed out again. They put me on a drip and were going to transfuse but didn't in the end. I lost about 800mls of blood they reckon, which is a fair amount... I stayed in until Tuesday night and got no sleep whatsover! My iron is way low - 7.6 at the last count but I just wanted to get home so am on the old tablets again and here we are, tired, shell-shocked, sore () but happy!

Anyway - I had tried to book the Albany team snd they were full and in the end I booked with the Kings Hospital Homebirth team and they were fantastic! I was in such a state as things happened so fast and they were absolutely brilliant - calm, organised and motivating. Can thoroughly recommend them! I also cannot fault the hospital care I got after transferring, everyone was really good.

So - good luck to everyone and go for it. It was amazing to do everything at home and personally, I definitely would have felt more uncomfortable labouring in hospital. Oh, and try to get the midwife there in time for you to have some gas and air !