If you had a homebirth, what were your essential items?

[Mij]

I'm hoping for a home birth with DC 2 (had an intervention-free birth with DD, only got to hospital at stage 2 so did most of it at home anyway) and just wondering what things you were either very glad you had/did, or wished you hadn't bothered with (or bothered worrying about in advance) when you birthed at home? Apart from having the right people around, of course .

I'm also wanting to hire a pool (NHS one is booked but we have an immersion tank and I'm told most people don't get theirs filled up in time having to wait for the thing to reheat!) so any recommendations there also gratefully received.

Thanks

thanks foxy will look for that. the MW offered to come and speak to him because she thinks its a great idea, but he wont even talk to her about it

Yes, brown paper for the floor - midwife recommended.

It doesn't slip on carpet.

dh thinks that doctors know everything and make all the right decisions (Im a nurse and know this isnt true ) he thinks babies should be born in hospital and thats that!!
We only live 4 minutes from major university hospital even if we did have an emergency!

I'll keep cracking on, Im sure I'll turn him eventually or just sit on the floor screamung and refuse to move

Sorry for hijack OP

Mosschops30 - maybe a birthing video. Men seem to find the general non-alien-movieness reassuring. Then a gradual drip drip approach to birthing is ok in general. That will help no matter where you have your baby.

Agree with StayFrosty.

get him a cuppa and some biscuits or watch it on a quiet evening with a takeaway. I didn't make a big deal about it, just asked him to watch it with me. It is done in the style of Michael Moore doucmentaires and a good summary of some main points in Ina May's Guide to Childbirth.

if he thinks doctors know everything then this documentary is a good antidote for that. no, i don't have shares in this dvd.

Send him to mn, that is good at that too!

A few home birth threads with positive stories, including positive transfer stories.

It's really reasonable to have plainly explained reasons for transfer, decison for transfer, and how this makes hb safe.

lol at dh watching a birthing dvd

Think neanderthal (sp?) man, works on site, eats builders breakfasts, doesnt do emotion.

The only thing I organised was tea and biscuits for the midwives. The midwives brought everything else. I already used a waterproof mattress protector but to be honest I gave birth standing up both times. The midwives had waterproof things for the floor and cleared everything up at the end.

I never understand women who say that they don't want a homebirth because of the mess. The midwives are usually very good at clearing up. I think some blood got on my carpet and the midwife was on her knees scrubbing the carpet for me.

mosschops - stick one on. He'll be weeping like a baby first birth, promise.

he sounds alot like my DH, mosschops.

Thanks for the tip on kitchen work-surfaces - I used a mantlepiece last time, for lots of leaning, but we've moved since. Can't really ask the landlord to change the fire just for my labour!

I finally got around to talking to DP about it last night - I'd just assumed his support, tbh - and luckily he's not worried, but then as I said we had a pretty easy time first time around.

I asked him if he remembered if it was messy (I have only sketchy memories), and he said only at the end, and by then I wasn't exactly galavanting around the room so it was all well contained. I'm not particularly worried about that, but we did go halves with the landlord on new carpets so we could get decent ones and I would be gutted if they were trashed!

tree rofl at Oasis sing-a-long - now that would definitely wake up DD if we were doing that at 3am! I put a lot of thought into labour music last time, but DP never got around to doing a CD (dd 6 days early - we weren't very organised) and in the end, if he'd put music on I'd have throttled him. I also had no inclination to eat during the whole thing, but then I was one of those who threw up in stage 1 so I guess my body just didn't want to deal with food too!

mosschops you'd be amazed at how even the most knuckle-dragging of the male species turn into mush when faced with real birth . I have the opposite problem - trying to get DP to stop crying sometimes is an issue! He's far more excited about meeting this child than I am at the moment.

you ladies are very organised
my background music was match of the day blaring out of the front room t.v. and as for kitchen work surfaces...no time..just get me on the floor

Funny frosty

I can highly recommend not realising you're in labour, going to yoga, then to Argos to get a mate a mini patio heater for her birthday and lugging it back to the car as excellent ways to deal with early labour

gardeningmum05 same here. Dh's team was playing (Sat afternoon) so he kept nipping out to the sitting room to check the score

Oh, my really big recommendation for my 1st HB was lavender oil - very relaxing. Spent most of my short labour in the bath and on the loo (seemed the most comfortable position!!). Even now, the smell of lavender makes me think of giving birth to ds1.

Tescos do 94p shower curtains which are F.A.B. for covering things up & do not slip about.

I bought a couple of incredibly cheap IKEA duvets, sewed the aforementioned shower curtains to them & then attached tesco's el cheapo cotton top sheets to the lot - gave me some movable birth environments! Soft on the knees & the baby's head!

I also hired this birth pool, which was permanently heated so ready for use.
birth pool

Homeopathy kits, if you're into that. Helios do birth ones.

Second the cheap towels. Plus lots of biscuits & cake. My paramedics ate most of mine as baby arrived before midwife. They were happy.

Doula? Again, I engaged one, she was wonderful. Depends on local politics about HB MW support.

HB's the best thing ever, hope all goes well.

Clarysage for times where the body seems reluctant to ask for more contractions. Used [inhaled] well into active establishe labour and in small amounts it worked very nicely for me 2nd time.

WE got our towels from Tescos (Value range, red ) also make sure you have some surfaces clear for the amount of stuff they bring with them!

Make sure you have some easy food to eat when it's all over i.e. toast, biscuits, pasta.

i used a shower curtain but it was very slippy, then put some of those pampers bed mats on the top.
black bags for any rubbish, i bought some el cheapo towels from tesco and just chucked them.
. i birthed ds at 8:30pm and it was dark outside, we only have energy bulbs in the house so it was quite gloomy. the mw did my stitches by torch light

Birth pool, clary sage and TENS machine. TENS definitely worked brilliantly, as I found out when I thought it was doing nowt and took it off! Put it on really early though, much more effective.

That's it really, my births were really fast so didn't get chance to crack open any tea/cake, the midwives were off!

I bought some plastic sheeting from B&Q and then put large dust sheets on top (freshly washed of course!) which we'd used when decorating.
But really I only needed this after giving birth as thats the only time I bled.
Found the pool and doula the most important/helpful things (had neither first time round and second birth was much nicer).
Arnica is good too plus clothes for baby and dark/loose dressing gown and dark towels for you for afterwards.
Hope all goes well...