Homebirth and mess

[Reallytired]

If you have a home birth is it true that an NHS midwife will not help you to clear up the mess afterwards?

I had my first ante natal appointment today and I was told that if I had a homebirth that I would be responsible for clearing up all the mess.

Its enough to make me look for an independent midwife.

Angle,

I worked as a chalet maid too(at Butlins!) and i saw some shocking stuff also. Worse than the sanitary towel!

I've had 2 homebirths and both times the midwives cleared up.

The first time I delivred on my bed and, when I had a shower, I came back to a freshly made bed.

The second time I delivered in my lounge and the duvet/sheets were bagged up.

Crikey no! They scoop everything up, put it in a bag and take it away. I put plastic down on bed so things didn't get ruined, covered with old towels and sheets, they bundled it all up and binned it. Nice fresh sheets underneath. mmmm

They had loads of inco pads and took them away. We had old towels and throws and stuff which we threw away (make sure dh doesn't get arrested at the tip). DH put the cover on the pool and manfully came back (we had to go into hosp) and cleared it out that day blood in a warm pool of water starts to stink quite quickly, he tells me but I did bleed a lot as I had retained placenta and they were trying to get it out (needed two pints transfused) and it really wasn't that bad - I know I have made it sound bad, but that's just to be realistic, I guess some people bleed more than others. Most embarrassing or perhaps cringeworthy thing is that midwife asked dh for a bowl to fill with warm water and soap to help clean me up and he gave her a dirty old paint splattered washing up bowl. I was oblivious. They gave us a yellow 'bucket thing' for clinical waste (i.e. placenta) which we then had to put outside the house and call a number to get collected specially. Not that ours had anything in it.

They had loads of inco pads and took them away. We had old towels and throws and stuff which we threw away (make sure dh doesn't get arrested at the tip). DH put the cover on the pool and manfully came back (we had to go into hosp) and cleared it out that day blood in a warm pool of water starts to stink quite quickly, he tells me but I did bleed a lot as I had retained placenta and they were trying to get it out (needed two pints transfused) and it really wasn't that bad - I know I have made it sound bad, but that's just to be realistic, I guess some people bleed more than others. Most embarrassing or perhaps cringeworthy thing is that midwife asked dh for a bowl to fill with warm water and soap to help clean me up and he gave her a dirty old paint splattered washing up bowl. I was oblivious. She was horrified but used it anyway. They gave us a yellow 'bucket thing' for clinical waste (i.e. placenta) which we then had to put outside the house and call a number to get collected specially. Not that ours had anything in it.

oops

I'm not much help - but i must admit to wondering how everyone got on in the "olden" days where babies were all born at home. Did everyone rush out to buy a new mattress?

my nhs midwives cleared everything up.

my lovely midwifes -

cleaned up all of the mess (not that their was a lot - my friend gave me an incontinece pad that abosrbed all of my waters)

and we have laminated flooring

then they made me a bath, washed and massaged my back -

dressed me

made my bed and put me in it with tea and toast, then tucked my lovely newborn in with me,

washed up their tea cups and crept out as we slept

it was a lovely experience (compared to the hospital, where I couldnt find the showers and when I did they were dirty/kicked my DH out about 50 mins after the birth and hurmphed when I said I was hungry)