anybody had a home birth? ?

[secondtimeprego]

Due to unavoidable circumstances (namely that I had a previous fast labour of only 2.5hrs & second births are often 2x as fast!) I've opted for a home birth with my second! Anyone got any experience of home births? I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect but this baby is likely to come quickly and it is unlikely childcare will arrive at my house with time for me to get to hospital. So for me it is a sensible option. I'd love to hear first hand about anyones experiences of home birthing!? How long till the midwives arrived? The mess/clean up? (Eek!) Did you feel you got the same standard of care that you'd expect to get in a birth centre/hospital?

I had a very straightforward home birth with my second. No mess issues. Midwife cleared up.

I had a home birth with my second. Mess wasn't an issue. Midwife was with me within the hour - can't remember really, definitely got here before DH did as he was at work. I far, far preferred my home birth to my hospital birth.

I've had two. The midwives arrived within 30 mins both times. I was upstairs with the new baby for the clean up operations. The midwives take everything away apart from the birth pool- if you're having one.

Good luck, I have a friend who had her 2nd on her mothers living room floor and made the decision to have her 3rd at home for the same reasons as you. It went well but she'd have preferred a hospital birth with and epidural

I opted for a homebirth for DS2 for exactly the same reason as you - namely very fast birth with first baby. My second birth was even quicker at 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the midwife did not get to us in time and I gave birth at home with only DH to help me. Not ideal. Even the paramedics we called when I realised I needed to push arrived after the baby.

Clean up wise, the midwives helped my DH do it once they arrived.

My experience wasn't great but if we'd tried to get to hospital he would have been born at the side of the road so I guess it was better than that!

I got a far superior standard of care during my home birth. 1-2-1 midwife care and monitoring every 20 minutes opposed to every 4hrs in mlu.
I had planned to deliver in the bedroom but ended up in the bath. I'm not going to lie, it put me off baths for a while but the mw took everything away with her and cleaned the blood off the floor.

Oh and I forgot your last question. I am 100% certain I got an amazingly higher level of care at home. I trained as a midwife and I know the care out local hospital offers is nowhere near the 1-1 (or 1-2) care you get at home. My MW friends are regularly looking after 3 labouring women on a shift- compared to the general population, midwives are more likely to have homebirths for their own babies.

I've had two. Never had a hospital birth so not really sure what you mean about standard of care. Bit like food, I'm guessing it's much better at home!

Midwives arrived in 1.5 hours first time ( just in time to catch the baby, first labour was about the same length as yours was) Then in one hour the second time (with lots of time to spare, second labours aren't always shorter, mine was three times as long as my first)

What worries you about standard of care? I had four midwives all to myself, every comfort I could think of, an awesome night nanny to let me sleep on call 24/7 (DH!) a private shower, a private bath, a birth ball, millions of pillows, all my own clothes and sanitary stuff, takeaway menus and champagne in the fridge. All good really. And the midwives do the same as they would in the hospital, and a lot more than they would do if you were on the side of the road somewhere ...

I prepared well and didn't see any mess.

With quick births all you really want from a midwife is a well placed waterproof pad and a good catch!

I had a home birth with DD3. It was wonderful. My birth with DD2 was 1hr50min and I was recommended to have a home birth to avoid delivering in the car/carpark etc. I'm so glad I did. The birth was 45 minutes long, but I felt so much calmer than with my previous births. The care was wonderful, as I saw the same two midwives for ante-natal care, one of them delivered DD3, and the other did the post-birth care until I was transferred to the HV. You wouldn't have known that anything had happened in the living room. They cleared up everything. Everything we needed was provided in a big box some weeks before the birth. I just provided an old shower curtain and some towels and sheets to put down on the floor. It was so wonderful to get into my own comfy bed afterwards (and get a cup of tea and brie and bacon sandwich from DH!). I'm now expecting number 4 (and most likely final!) and would love to have another home birth.

I had a homebirth for DC2 for exactly the same reason. When I phoned the midwives (as soon as I was getting regular twinges, I felt like a fraud!) I told them I had a history of fast labour and they came round very quickly (within 15 minutes, calling me from the car to check I was OK) - the second midwife came at the same time as the first.

I got a much better level of care at home - I had two midwives and a student midwife with me the whole time. When I had DC1 at the birth centre I the midwife popped in and out and was very busy with other people.

There was pretty much no mess for us to clear up - the midwives took a big bucket of clinical waste with them and helped DH pump the pool out down the drain and put everything else into black bin bags. It was all very straightforward, DH was pleasantly surprised as he had been worried about mess!