midwives have OK'd a home birth for me...now come and reassure me and tell me where in your house you gave birth!

[CatIsSleepy]

reassurance required as I am a bit of a scaredy-cat and dd's birth was a bit long-winded...
but am hoping this one will be quicker!
and we are v. near hospital if anything goes wrong so rationally i know it'll be OK
but still...

and am wondering where people generally have their babies at home-in bed? on the floor? does it get horrendously messy ? tell me your stories!

In the corner of our bedroom, in a birthpool, with a gale howling outside which made it nice to be in the calm, warm water. No mess except for in the pool, but even that wasn't too bad. I had my eyes shut for pretty much the whole labour from 4am to 5pm, and did hypnobirthing breathing and visualising. Was astonishing to open them again and see my pfb when I had him in my arms! It was the best day of my life, although I couldn't do it again - a deeply emotional and painful yet ecstasy-filled day which in hindsight I can't quite believe I did. Still so proud of myself, four months on.

I didn't even bother putting down shower curtains. The carpet didn't get a speck on it!

I knew I shouldn't have read this thread.
Now I'm even more broody than I already was!

downstairs, leaning over the sofa hanging onto ds's beanbag lol

no mess at all. midwives were very good at chucking stuff under me and cleared it all up adfterwards.

Haringey - the homebirth team working out of the Whittington hospital are LEGEND. Absolutely FANTASTIC. (That's who I had)
I really couldn't fault them. The antenatal appointments, the preparation, the after care. What EVERY woman should have available to her (if she wants it).

Both my babies were born downstairs in the living room, in pretty much the same spot. With DS I was sat on DH's lap using him as an impromptu birthing stool, with DD (just 3 weeks ago) kneeling over the sofa.

In the lounge, with DH supporting me in a semi squat....very Michel Odent . His Birth Reborn video is worth rooting out. Quite messy for me, I was glad to have a sturdy shower curtain, I just took ours down and treated myself to a new one. Used a very very old duvet and pillows that needed tossing anyway and very old towels (all from an ISO on Freecycle). Was amazingly hard work but I am completely convinced that I would have had an instrumental or c/s if I had been in hospital as I would have crawled onto the bed and said that I couldn't do it . It was almost too much....I didn't want to hold DD2 afterwards, but DH did skin to skin and had the most incrdible bonding experience with his undrugged newborn.

With hindsight I needed better provision in place for DD1....either someone closer to take her or a doula/ friend to support me while DH was occupied with her. She saw me in very intense labour (I was well into transition before MW and ILs even got there) and was completely unphased though. I would have liked to have been able to get behind the sofa, or perhaps labour in the kitchen? WOuld have been nice to have something higher to lean on. It was difficult to be looked after in my own home for me too IYKWIM....I wanted to be the hostess!

ds2 (3rd baby) was born at home last August. 3 3/4 hour labour (first twinge to finish) - actually 2nd baby was the quickest not this one!

dh put a futon mattress on the floor covered it with a waterproof sheet and then covered that with a sheet. When the mw came she got dh to bring down lots of towels. There was mess but all cleared up very fast and not a trace on our brand new pale grey living room carpet - towels either chucked into clinical waste bag or soaked immediately.

An hour later and I was wrapped in a blanket on the sofa eating pizza and with half the neighbours coming round to visit!

These stories are amazing. I thought I was happy with 2, but reading this I really really really want a third .

Never occurred to me to have my first at hime and had a horrible experience culminating in an emCS. Then was too scared to have a VBAC at home second time round.

If I were ever to get pregnant again, it would definitely be a homebirth. .

Reading this thread makes me want to have another baby right now! Had ds at home nine months ago and it was just amazing.
Don't give the mess a second thought. the midwives will clean it up.
We have a tiny very faint stain on the carpet in the corner of the bedroom and that's it. And to be honest I love that stain. I look at it and it reminds me of what was without doubt the most wonderful moment of my life.
So here's to stains! I'm very pround of mine!
Good luck and enjoy - I can't wait to do it all again!

i gave birth in my bedroom on my bed! it was so relaxing, i loved it and if i had a 3rd id do it all again! at the time believe it or not i had light cream carpets and white bedding - there wasnt a mark to be seen after the midwifes had cleaned everywhere while i was in the bath!!!

We had really old carpets that were going out when I had my son at home but I would definitly agree with the shower curtain idea. I planned to give birth downstairs but ended up pacing aound our hall upstairs for m ost of it, then nearly had him sitting onthe toilet. Was move back to the spare room by the midwife and had him kneeling over one of those birthing balls.
I would certainly recommmend a home birth BUT you do have to be "up for it" - I nearly lsot my nerve waiting for the midwife to arrive but as soon as she was here I was fine.
My daughter was downstairs with nanny throughout and heard his first cries and saw him when he was minutes old. It's bringing a little tear to my eye jsut thinking about it!

lovely stories.

I must say you never hear such nice stories about hospital births. I'm also interested in quite how many people have cream carpets!

I'm 30 weeks with DC 2 and in Holland, where homebirth is strongly encouraged (30%). So am planning one, after very long but ultimately successful hospital birth with DS. I was also wondering where you actually end up having it, in living room etc.

Did anyone have any kind of rope or something to hold on to? I've often thought that would be good.