Creating a labour room retreat

[tingelingle]

I'm looking for top tips on turning the labour room into my own personal retreat. I was at home with DD but will be going in this time so naked flame candles and incense are out.

Got any top tips / purchases? The labour 'suites' at my local are really not pretty.

Hi, you can get little battery operated tea lights, or battery tea lights in paper bags that are quite pretty (if babys born at night).
You can take music too. Otherwise it might just be a case of taking some comfy pillows, a fluffy dressing gown (and slippers) and some nice post birth shower/bath stuff.
Best i could come up with, i take allsorts in 'cos i like my home comforts too

any reason you can't stay at home for this one?

draw the curtains.dim or no lights. make sure your DH and birth partners whisper, it makes everyon else talk quietly. take your own pillows and a blanket and own birth ball.

nice toiletries.

flask of raspberry leaf tea

music/hypnobirth CDs

Oooh loving the idea of battery operated tea lights. And getting DH to whisper (ha- that'll be the day!).

Thanks, good tips.

Lulumaam - going in this time as I've got twins coming. Though I could stay at home, I feel more comfortable with a hospital this time.

It's just those bright pink walls and awful curtains. Who decorates these places?!

oooh twins ! lovely !

are your hospital being supportive of a vaginal birth?

i am not sure who decorates them, I did an audit of our local maternity services and did suggest knocking the building down and startng again

Happy to read these suggestions, labour rooms at my local hospital are hideous blue with yellow flowers, think horrific curtains bought from poundland in the early 90s yuk. Even the home from home room, which i'm hoping to get, subject to availability, is hideous.

I'm thinking i might try and get some battery operated tealights. They have there own CD players - can't take your own because of PAT testing - so i need to pick a few CDs and a two ipods as there is no way of charging them.

I'm taking my old scraggy dressing gown, i've told DH i need a new one for when i come home but other than that not really sure what else i'll need.

Nice ideas. Any suggestions for where to buy battery operated tea lights? Not sure if I have time for mail order...

and smoggii my baby brain has been trying to figure out how to get round the problem of my ipod running out of batteries for weeks... just take two, simple! OH, hand it over!

I told my DH last night that he would be putting my playlist on his ipod as well as mine and in fairness he didn't bat an eyelid just said what he's been saying for the last 35 weeks 'yes dear'.

After reading this i ordered my battery operated tea lights (and some christmas lights from the same site) i think they'll come i handy round the house even if i don't end up using them at the birth.

I'm starting to feel more positive about the birth already!

Lulumaam, as long as twin 1 is not breach, I can have a normal delivery, midwife lead. I am going in to speak to the midwifery team though just to make sure my birth plan is supported. But my hospital even did a home birth of twins recently so I think they're pretty good.

Islandbaby, I saw tealights on Amazon so they might come quicker than your baby....Or maybe a Robert Dyas or Poundland type shop?

I was assuming you could take your own iPod dock in. Darn health and safety.

Maybe those with long labours could redecorate to pass the time. Dulux hint of a tint, something mellow. It wouldn't be long before delivery suites up and down the country are transformed. Just a thought.

Love love love the decorating idea - scrap my hospital bag i'm taking in a couple of tins of dulux x