First time home birthers and their support squad

[jollyjoanne]

Not a homebirther personally but wanting to offer support to Boobz and others who are going for a home birth . . .

We're off to B and Q to get the bits and bobs for the pool tomorrow, and just put out a call on freecycle to see if we can get some old sheets / towels / plastic sheeting. Let's see if there are any generous souls out there...

Hello all, just checking in. Would like to second the suggestion from Boobz to get a TENS machine. I LOVED mine. You can hire them from Boots, they just deliver it in the post and then you send it back afterwards. From speaking to other mums people either love them or find them utterly useless (I have a friend who threw hers across the room because it was annoying her)but it's definitely worth a try. I got to 9+cm dilated on mine. Well, that and the hypnotherapy CDs which were also fab.

Starting to get fed up now which isn't good as I've got another 6 weeks to go and DD was overdue by a week so could easily be 7 weeks or more (argh). Being overdue is horrible so you have my sympathy Bella and boredgirl! No helpful tips for keeping busy - I tried scrubbing the kitchen floor and washing the windows but only because people had told me stories of them starting labour. DH thought I was nesting . If you have friends around I found it helpful to visit someone most days if I could, just broke up the monotony a bit and gave me something to chat about with DH when he came home rather than just shouting "No, I'm STILL not in labour" as he walked in the door!

Looking forward to hearing everyone's birth stories in the next few weeks...

We are hypno birthing! Every time i say it i feel pretentious(sp) not hippyish.
So would agree Boobz you sounds more hippyish for enjoying labour. Prob only because i remember following your thread for 3 days willing that baby out.

I had no pain relief with either DS1 or DS2. Tried gas and air with DS1 but it made me sick so only had 2 puffs.
So although midwife has delivered 3 canisters of G&A and will bring another 3 with her i don't envisage using it. I am also not getting a prescription for pethidine as i figure if it is that sore i will want to be at the hospital anyway.

So i am either being really stupid or have a high pain threshold we will see.

Hello All!

Despite wanting and planning a homebirth, I have to take it myself off the list!

I went into hospital on Thrusday with severe itching on my hands and feet and was diagnosed with obstetric cholestasis and decided to be induced at 39 weeks.

So my baby is here and even though it wasn't like we planned, it was still great.

Good luck to all you ladies and I hope you get the births you want. I will follow this thread with great interest and many cheers

BellaBalloon, DC 1 due 12 January, planned home waterbirth, London
Boredgirl, DC1 due 15th January, SW London
Motherofsnortpigs, DC3 due 18th January, Oxon
MamaLazarou, DC#1 due 24th Jan, planned home birth, Kent
Raindroprhyme, DC#3 due 2nd February, planned HB, South West Scotland
Comeonbishbosh, DC#1 due 7th Feb, planned home waterbirth, Sheffield.
Sunnybump DC#1 due 18th Feb planned home water birth, NE Scotland.
intravenouscoffee, DC#2 due 26th Feb, planned home birth, E Mids
Caitni, DC #1 due 2 March, planned home waterbirth, North London
Heth1980, DD2, due 4th March, planned home birth, Birmingham
PrincessTweetz, DC#2 due 28th March, planned home birth, Coventry
Bettymum, DC#2 due 7 April, planned home birth, Berkshire
Toady, DC#4 due 17th April, home birth, Torquay
Boobz, DC#2 due June 9th, planned home waterbirth, South London
Wheredidmyfeetgo, DC3 due 28th June, Wiltshire

Congratulations, happyfaces! Hope everyone is well.

Congratulations happyfaces! Lovely news, hope you're having a good time getting to know your new LO.

Wowowowowowweeee - the first baby has arrived! And you don't get taken off the list, you move to the arrived section of the list! Congratulations - well done Happy - you sound like it was a good birth despite not being what you planned - come on here and tell us all about it!

Is it a boy or a girl? What's the name? How did the induction go? Tell us all!

Due

BellaBalloon, DC 1 due 12 January, planned home waterbirth, London
Boredgirl, DC1 due 15th January, SW London
Motherofsnortpigs, DC3 due 18th January, Oxon
MamaLazarou, DC#1 due 24th Jan, planned home birth, Kent
Raindroprhyme, DC#3 due 2nd February, planned HB, South West Scotland
Comeonbishbosh, DC#1 due 7th Feb, planned home waterbirth, Sheffield.
Sunnybump DC#1 due 18th Feb planned home water birth, NE Scotland.
intravenouscoffee, DC#2 due 26th Feb, planned home birth, E Mids
Caitni, DC #1 due 2 March, planned home waterbirth, North London
Heth1980, DD2, due 4th March, planned home birth, Birmingham
Mad4mainecoons, DC2 due 4 March, planned homebirth, Cornwall
PrincessTweetz, DC#2 due 28th March, planned home birth, Coventry
Bettymum, DC#2 due 7 April, planned home birth, Berkshire
Toady, DC#4 due 17th April, home birth, Torquay
Boobz, DC#2 due June 9th, planned home waterbirth, South London
Wheredidmyfeetgo, DC3 due 28th June, Wiltshire

Arrived

Happyfaces, DC1 arrived 12 January, induction at 39 weeks due to Cholestasis, Cambridgeshire

Congratulations Happy! I second Boobz, want to hear all the details!

Have just ordered my TENS (thanks for the advice, Intravenous and Boobz, saved me from sitting on the fence). I have to say, although it's such a pain being overdue, it has been so nice to have another weekend with DH before we're parents!

Really hoping that things will happen this week as MIL coming down on Saturday and really don't want to have to deal with her fussing - if we have the baby she'll be totally distracted, and i'll have an excuse for leaving them all to it and having a nap!

Thanks for tips, have cleaned the whole house from top to bottom and all it did for me was hurt my back! I think DC must have grown a lot in the last week or so, as I'm definitely feeling much heavier and have loads more back pains.

Hope everyone's well, will hopefully have some news for you soon!

Well done Happy! Details, please!!

Who was talking about needing a bathrobe to get out of the pool and go to the loo? I have been told by a MW that you can just pee in the pool as urine is sterile anyway (sounds gross, but better than heaving oneself out of the water mid-labour). If you are thinking you need a poo, you are probably about to actually have the baby - a good reason to stay put!

I am going to beg for a sweep tomorrow which I know is only my due date, but I have been going on and off for well over a week now and have bad problems with going post-dates: I hung on for 43 weeks with DD1 and it was still an induction and it was a horrid one that ended in emcs for fetal distress.

Oh, I have to go, apparently someone in the play room needs a doctor....

congrats Happy !!
i knew i wouldn't be the first on here, despite having the earliest date!! i am hoping for wednesday and if it doesn't start happening wed night think i will probably go for the sweep on thursday...i thought the baby couldn't get any bigger but am now starting to worry about the ergonomics. I hope it's not going to come through the sun roof but if it gets any bigger i fear i will have no choice!

I also didn't bother with swimwear or a dressing gown for getting in and out of the pool to go to the loo. I thought I would want a tankini or something, but in the end it was just me and DH for so long, it seemed pointless. And I peed in the pool too - I could only do miniscule amounts when I did go, so didn't see the point of hauling my fat bump out every 10 mins. I did wear one of DH's shirts when I was out of the pool, and was only totally naked when in the pool, and when DD was born so I could latch her on as soon as she came out...

Bella - I did antenatal yoga from 12 weeks until the baby was born (once a week at a place down the road from me - was heavenly) and so tried to remember everything she had taught me for the different stages of labour... the positions to get the baby moving down the birth canal, the positions to help with breathing both during and inbetween contractions, and finally the positions and chanting (!) during pushing DD out. I have no idea if any of it helped, but DD was born with no stiches or damage to me, and it sure did help to distract me from the pain and from the all the waiting (I must have had hundreds of contractions by the time she arrived...)

No idea if you can learn them all in a day before she comes out though! Would defo recommend you go to ante natal yoga for your next one... was so relaxing and a chance to just switch off every Tuesday for an hour after work.

DH gone away for 2 and a half weeks from today - sob. DD is projectile vomitting as well, so it's going to be a fun week ahead.

boobz i too went to antenatal yoga classes but we weren't taught such specific exercises. Yours sounds fab. Even my DVD basically just recommends hands and knees and doing circles with your bum which is what I would do instinctively anyway.
Feel short changed!

Sorry your DH has gone and DD is vomming. That's tough. Hope you can get some friends and/or family over to help out
Think i will go nudster in the pool too ...

Oh, well, where do you live? If you are anywhere near Streatham, my yoga lady does an active birthing workshop (have you done one of those too?) which you and your DH can go on and it gives you loads of good advice and yoga positions to work with... it was invaluable for my DH, as he learnt loads to do to help me at home during the latent stage.

Not sure if she can fit you in before you give birth, but you never know... it's a day course.

Naff all on the telly. I can see hours being wasted on MN and FB.

Morning all, sorry to hear about absent DHs and poor DCs.

I've been having some pains since yesterday evening, no real pattern to them yet and they are not unbearable, so DH is still going to work and I'm going to potter around as normal. They just feel like very bad period pains. As it's my first, I have no idea what to expect, but I suppose everyone is different anyway.

I'm hoping the baby will come tomorrow, as that's when my favourite midwife is on call!

Spare a thought for my poor little sister - she's having to go into hospital to have her wisdom teeth out and it's her 30th birthday today!

Sounds like this could be it Mama - I went from nothing, to period type pains, to losing plug to contractions all within 12 hours, so you never know.... it is difficult though, when it's your first, as you have no idea what it's supposed to feel like, despite everyone telling you who's had a baby... If I have one piece of advice, it's REST whilst you still can... I got so excited thinking "is this it? Isn't it? Oooo, that was defo a contraction - how can I make more come now.....?" that I wasted energy which I needed later on. Your body knows what it is doing and you just need to trust it (not that I listened to any of this advice myself with DD.... hmmm)

Will be checking in on the thread all day to see if Bella, bored, *snortpigs (due today!) and yourself start kicking off...

Congratulations happyfaces!!
Hope everyone else is well!
I went to see my new nephew yesterday, he's just over 2 weeks old, it was like I'd never held a baby in my life before, I felt so awkward and he's so small. Hope I remember what to do with a baby before DC2 arrives .

Thank you for your wise words of advice, Boobz. Bah, well, they have stopped now, so I am going for a little walk followed by a lie down. Hopefully back with more news later!

Ah, congrats on your new nephew, bettymum.

Can I join in? Due 28th March, first baby, living in Newcastle upon Tyne. We're hoping for a home hypnobirth in water. My community midwife is the epitome of sceptical geordie hinny and so I think we will have a bit of a battle on our hands!

opalfruity, I had a homebirth in Newcastle and the midwives were great. Not a hypnobirth though. Happy to help if I can.

Hello everyone, could I join the list please?

I'm due today and am planning a home waterbirth when baby does decide to arrive. This is my first baby but my mum had two hospital births and three home births and she couldn't rate the homebirths highly enough so I decided to go for it and hopefully fingers crossed will get a home birth.

Good luck to everyone else, interested to read about the hypnobirthing as my friend who had her first baby in MLU is now thinking about planning a home waterbirth with hypnobirthing for her second.

You have the same due date as me opalfruity!! This will be my 2nd baby tho, a lil boy this time x

hello all, although i am very early to be joining your list, i'm 6 weeks with dc3. ds was a homebirth and have requested a hb with this one too. dd was born in hospital and it was awful so i hope i get my way again this time!

That's really reassuring actually hairtwiddler!

I've been quite disillusioned with the community midwife service so far, but maybe I've just been unlucky. I've only had 4 appointments and each one has been rushed with no opportunity to ask questions or discuss my plans. Hey ho. We've booked a tour of the RVI just in case we do end up in there but I really do hope that I get my homebirth.

I get the feeling you'll probably beat me to it then PrincessTweetz, if it's your second :-) I feel like I've been pregnant for ever already so it will be just my luck that I end up going massively over my due date!

I was never impressed with the community care, they were very short staffed and there was no continuity. They were excellent at the birth though. I was lucky to get two senior midwives who really inspired confidence and calm. Birth took three hours from first twinge, they were around for less than half that time then stayed to help me shower and watch the first feed. Aftecare also less good,was desperate to be discharged in the end. Just never the same person twice. Can't fault the assistants they have though, both are escellent.
Rvi depends on how busy they are... had dd there 4 yrs ago.

May I join please, ladies? Due in 2 weeks, second attempt at a HB, as my first ended in a hospital transfer. I really need to get myself organised, but am vegetating in bed with a cold instead. My MW is supportive of HB, and my pal is dropping off her birth pool tonight so things are getting a bit closer to becoming reality!