Planned homebirth no more! :-(

[Mummyk1982]

Hi all,
Homebirth was all planned out, pool bought etc. then on Monday my varicose veins down below got sore so saw gp in case of clot, he took one look and referred to obstetrician cos the veins are big. So yesterday saw obstetrician who was lovely and very informative, told me the veins that we can see are large but not too bad, but he's more concerned about how heavily vascularised the lower edge of my 'bits' are, that he's not seen anything like it before and that if I should tear or need an episiotomy I'd be at risk of haemorrhage. For those reasons he advises I should deliver in hospital- but I can still go on midwife led birth unit (phew!), and that I shouldn't deliver in water as they wouldn't be able to get me out quick enough if I bled ( though I can labour in the pool).
He was very nice about it all, explained everything and I am so grateful that he's discovered this issue as it would have been horrific to haemorrhage at home. But can't help but feel a little deflated that not only is my homebirth out the window, but so is the water birth. Hubby pretty gutted too :-(

:( Sorry to hear this. However as you say, thank goodness he noticed and can provide you with a safe option.

I know how you feel. I abandoned my plans for a home birth for family reasons. But I did go to the birth centre. So my plan for a water birth was still in place.

I had 3 contractions in the pool. My waters went & it was very obvious baby had passed meconium. I was out of that pool like a shot. Delivered on the bed. Everything was fine in the end.

Sometimes we just need to go with the flow. Labour & birth can be unpredictable.

Best of luck. Hope everything goes well.

I know how you feel I've been planning a natural delivery preferably at home for 5 years - then went for a scan at 7 weeks to discover I'm expecting triplets!
Obviously I'm thrilled (and scared) but am now facing a c-section which I can't help feeling disappointed about.

Aww, it is horrible when all you plans go down the pan.

On the plus side it sounds like you are being very positive about it and looking at the most practical and safest way for you and your baby!

Hope you still get to labour in the pool and also that your poor lady bits don't take too much of a bashing!

Good luck and congratulations!

Look at it this way...
you will still be getting a lovely squishy new baby and you won't be severely ill or worse because you haemorrhaged at home in an uncontrolled situation. Count your blessings and focus on the end result, not the journey.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I know it's the right thing today, and I know mine and baby's safety is paramount. Now to practice the hell out of my hypnobirthing techniques- I will retain some control over everything! :-)

You may still be able to labour in the water but come out to deliver the baby. With both my boys I was quite anaemic for the whole pg and was at risk of bleeding heavily. But I was allowed to go into a nice warm bath at the hospital and stay there till I was dilated enough to push. Incidentally, I didn't lose that much blood but I couldn't have a water birth because of the risk.

Could that be an option for you?

So sorry that you're missing out on the birth you wanted but as others have said, at least he's picked up on a potential danger and is doing his best to avoid it.

Hypnobirthing is excellent though, so I hope you get some comfort from still being able to use that. :)

Sorry to hear your homebirth has had to go.... During labour try to keep the pressure off your vaginal area so lots of hands and knees and supported left lateral, ideally not too much toilet-sitting or birthing stool to impact more blood into that area. Maybe immediate cold compresses down there once baby out?

I have had one delivery where a varicose vein tore in labia and this would have been a transfer if it had been a homebirth. However many varicose veins don't actually bleed that heavily because they are dysfunctional veins rather than arteries. My lady lost only about 150mls of blood from her burst vein which isn't much at all, and the bleeding stopped as soon as I put pressure on it so it never became an actual emergency. She could have had it left as it is with possible swelling and pain from the haematoma for a bit, but she chose to have it repaired immediately and the doctor did a really nice job. None of this was any worse than your regular average tear so there is no need to be worried about it. Although water softens tissue in general I would also advise delivery on land because warm water unfortunately dilates blood vessels and may increase the chance of bleeding.w

Thanks for the advice lavender. I had assumed birthing in water might be better as it kind of helped 'against' gravity if that makes sense?! :-)

I know how disappointing it must be but you'll still have loads of good stuff (calm atmosphere, speedy discharge, chilled out midwives) from the MLU. My first baby was a homebirth and I laboured in water, but got taken out to give birth as I couldn't push effectively in there. The birth was still amazing. And the second time round I got my water birth and it was also amazing - no better than the first though. Good luck with everything.