If you had a homebirth, where in your house did you deliver?

[GColdtimer]

I am thinking of a homebirth (am 23 weeks) if my placenta moves out of the way.

Where did you deliver and how much mess was there (have cream carpets ? i live in a 3 story house with my living room and bathroom on the first floor and my bedroom on the top floor. the bottom floor is DH's teaching studio and my kitchen/diner.

Just interested to know where in your house you all delivered.

On the floor of the living room, on all fours, leaning on the sofa. We got a load of dust sheets from B&Q, and put them on our (cream) carpets, and I made a kind of nest of old, soft towels and those disposable pad things the MW's had. The midwives and my doula cleared everything up afterwards!

I loved my HB, an hour after i delivered my placenta I was in bed with a cup of proper tea (none of that awful, milky, chalky shit they give you in hospital!) and a tub of those mini chocolate crispie cakes. Great stuff.

On my bed in the end with 4 midwives and a dh on there with me!!! No mess what so ever that I saw!!! The midwives were too quick to clear everything up! Would absolutely recommend a homebirth, it was amazing! We put plastic sheeting over a freshly made bed, then an old duvet on top for comfort. Also plastic on the floor.

In living room, on a beanbag. No mess at all. Used a picnic rug which we threw away (plastic on the back and soft and fleecy on the top - perfect!). Then moved 2 metre to the sofa for first feed and snuggles.

On all fours, leaning over corner sofa (it's a tasteful one, honest). No mess on cream carpets but we did have to chuck out a pillow (one of our expensive John Lewis duck down ones) which I had become attached to as my security blanket from about 6cm dilated.

I love a good homebirth...

Ds- on the bed in our little rented flat. Dd- in a pool in the dining room of yet another rented place. Only mess from ds was a bit of washing as dh helpfully put the old sheets on the bed when I went in to labour but forgot to change the duvet cover so when I got ocld covered me up with our nice white duvet With dd there was the pool to empty but dh did that and no other mess. Though we did notice some splash marks on one of the landlady's paintings when we moved out, don't think she noticed!

lovely thread

sweetkitty wow i think bedroom sounds wonderful - so homely and romantic

bumpybecky respect to you for all four at home!

birthing pool in the sittingroom, totally lovely, pics on profile.

2 boys 2.5 years apart, same pool DH wearing same t-shirt

birthpool in sitting rooma nd on the couch 2nd time.

No mess, midwife cleared it all up

2 hbs - both in my bed - the only mess was me throwing up with ds3 when i didnt make the toilet in time and they kept forgetting to bring me bucket.
dh cleared that up
no other mess though - mw cleared all away whilst in shower and got back in my nice clean warm bed!

Midwifes & dh prepared the lounge (sheets on sofa, waterproof cover etc) but in the end I delivered ds upstairs in the bathroom leaning on the bath.
Ironically, I had virtually begged the midwifes to bring a birthing stool with them as it was the best thing for me when dd had been born 2 years prior. I sat on it for about 10 seconds with ds before I thought, this is not the right thing for this baby and me!

I am expecting dc3 and I am contemplating having a water birth and hiring a pool for another home birth.

Good luck.
Homebirths rock!

In my bed in our bedroom upstairs. Had plans to do it in spare room (floorboards instead of cream carpet) but in the end couldn't be bothered moving.
Got one drop of blood on carpet after it was all over and I was getting out of bed. No other mess!

I love all your posts and your photo greyskull (your cakes are amazing by the way!).

Despite being induced and back-to-back my first labour was really quick and I only had gas and air so midwife thinks I might not have time to get to hospital this time around - all your stories sound lovely and I really want a homebirth now.

Hopefully my placenta will play ball!

living room in the pool, watching Gavin and Stacy boxed set! No mess, but I went to the local pound shop and they had cheap waterproof mattress covers for a quid, so used a couple of those to create a waterproof nest on the sofa too then chucked them out afterwards.

23 weeks already

In the living room in a birthing pool, with plastic sheets under the pool and over the sofa (and towels/sheets over the plastic)

The bathroom is downstairs but things happened quite quickly so I didn't go in there at all.

I think there was one spot of blood on the carpet but that wasn't from the birth, it was me dripping lochia on the floor

The birth pool was emptied, cleaned and deflated (by the mw's) within the hour. And it was just dh, ds2 and I within 2 hours of the birth

I hope your placenta shifts

For DD2 I was in the teeny tiny downstairs toilet. In what I thought was early labour, needing to have a poo, the way you do , and having a surprise arrival of baby instead. Lots of mess everywhere, blood splattered all up walls etc. We've redecorated since.

But what was nice was 3 hours after the birth when the paramedics and midwives had gone and hubby had cleaned everything up (bless him) was having a shower and then climbing into bed with DD2 in a moses basket by us.

Having never even wanted a home birth it was taken out of our hands and compared to DD1s hospital birth it was a much nicer experience (even if a bit shocking and quick).

Blimey munchmummy, that sounds a bit dramatic! Glad everything was OK.

24 weeks now moveit - your experience sounds lovely

Good news is that i had another scan (am taking part in some research at our local hospital and get regular scans) and the obstetrician thought it wouldn't be a problem. Lets hope she is right!

Great news

You look after you and that bubba xxx

I delivered kneeling down next to my bed, we had a cream carpet and not a trace of anything could be seen afterwards.

We bought loads of smartprice shower curtains (99p) from ASDA, my MIL gave us loads of old sheets (For some reason they have millions of the things) and i bought some maternity mats from Boots.

I covered the bed with the shower curtains first then the sheets and then maternity mats wherever i sat/hovered.

Was fabulous and the room was pristine afterwards. Good Luck

I have had 2 homebirths and 1 hospital birth. Despite the fact that our road was closed on the day my 3rd child was born and there was no running water in the village (a new water main was being fitted !) it was still far better than being in hospital !

We just used some plastic sheeting from B@Q on the floor and some old sheets then just chucked it all away.

I had both my babies kneeling on the floor right next to my bed - it was great I could then just get into bed with the baby - would definatley recommend this - even with our pale yellow carpets !

When my waters broke during my 1st home birth the cat very nearly got a soaking which was pretty funny !!!

In the dining room. Bought a pool that included a huge plastic sheet the size of the room. No mess at all. Midwife took the worst of the muck with her (after dropping her watch in the yellow sack with my placenta!!) A few blood stained towels went in the wash. The bloody water went straight down the outside drain. Beige carpets survived intact!