Home birthing! thread

[cheekstime]

Hello Homebirthers, unsure whether this will be benefical but after seeing due date clubs/threads thought I would put this up.

A place where you can just dive in to post comment, with any of your home birthing planning issues, difficulties or joys!

I'm planning one myself, albeit a natural thing to do there's not many that do....popularity is increasing though :).

Just how many, if any at all are here as mumnetters?

To be fair I would have got in the pool earlier but we hadn't thought to put the water on (old system with a water tank) so then H and MW were boiling kettle and saucepans of water

Oh yeah I'm planning a pizza afterwards ;) have bought cheap shower curtains too. DD was one week early so that would be this weekend. I'm feeling funny today, really tired,achy and bit of a dodgy tum. Hoping its a sign!

I've found a company that I can hire a pool from for £90.
The MW agrees that home birth is probably a good idea because of how fast DD arrived, but didn't really say anything about using a pool or not.
I don't want to spend £90 and then not have time to get it filled and get in I just always thought I would prefer to be in water at home as surely it makes the mess easier to deal with?

I hired mine for £25 from a local home birth group but I guess not every area has one. I am in Kingston.

I considered a hospital braver than home birth! My hospital birth made me feel totally out of control and disoriented. Being at home was calm, peaceful and empowering. Plus I had three midwives all to myself Enjoy your journey

Mybread You can buy them on ebay for about £50 and then you could sell it on afterwards (only if you really want a water birth and have space to have it set up) £90 seems an awful lot of money. Just a thought

Hi everyone. I had my first child in hospital but chose a home birth for the second. I'd never really thought about home birth with the first but wish I had as I felt much more relaxed and able to enjoy time with my new baby from the start when we were all at home.

I was lucky enough to have a really supportive team of midwives locally and the whole experience was incredibly calm. In fact I have a lasting memory of being downstairs watching TV with my mum and DH (mum was over incase DC1 woke up and to look after DC1 if there were complications that meant we went to hospital) for most of my labour, then calling the midwife and 'popping' upstairs with her and DH for the last bit- it all felt a bit like I was just nipping up for a bath or something- almost surreal really.

Most people at work thought that I was clearly a loon for even considering a home birth but for me it was definitely the right choice. If I could give the pregnant me one piece of advice though it would be to put a protective and absorbent sheet on the bed- once baby arrived I had an overwhelming urge to just on my bed, even though there was still quite a bit of..erm..gunk.

Good luck to all hoping for a home birth and what a good idea for a thread- hope it helps you

Im 37+2 and all ready for a home water birth! Its dc2, first was in hospital. Super excited this time, fed up of waiting!

I'm 37 weeks today with my first and planning a home birth!
Lovely hearing positive stories, people have also raised an eyebrow at me wanting my first at home!

Afternoon. I have 3 DC; DC2 born at home in water, DC3 was a planned homebirth but decided on a hospital birth due to complications. Happy to be a voice of experience

I had a home water birth with DC2. We had plastic sheeting for the floor and we put some on the sofa under some old towels for me to sit on once I'd got out of the pool. I kept a tub of towels with the MWs home birth box.

I bought a pool on ebay and sold it on there after the birth. We bought a new liner which made clean up really easy for DH and by the next day you wouldn't have known I gave birth in there.

Agree with PP that a cheap sieve and plastic jug can be useful, and we attached a thermometer to one of the pool handles with some elastic.

Nothing better than a brew in your own mug from your own kitchen within minutes of the birth

I'd recommend an old duvet (or a cheap one you don't mind ruining). You can use it to sit on on the sofa afterwards and wrap up in. Or use it as a floor/sofa/bed cover when birthing.

Other stuff - towels and shower curtains as above.

Lots of maternity mats/puppy training pads/incontinence mats - the big ones. The midwives will bring some, but useful to stand on when labouring to contain waters breaking.
A bucket for bodily fluids.

Ice and straws for cold drinks.

Face cloths to dunk in cold water - it gets hot in the pool.

Honey is the best labour snack ever.

Nice chocolate biscuits for the midwives.

Pack a hospital bag just in case of transfer, and if your baby is born at home, everything is in one place to save hunting around for pants or maternity towels.

There were some spare incontinence pads left after the birth so I put a couple in my bed for the first few nights. I had enough washing to be doing without having to do my sheets as well! If I ever have another home birth I'll be getting extra ones myself as well.

I filled a spray bottle as well and kept it in the fridge and that was nice on my face and back in between contractions.

Make sure you ring your MW in plenty of time otherwise they won't get there in time and you won't get to have any gas and air voice of experience

Yes OP it was my first birth, and a home birth. I acknowledge that I was incredibly lucky, but I also had my mum and sister who had both had two calm 'simple' births , my mum's also at home.
So I felt that I 'could' do it, iykwim.

I hired a birth pool (£90, suckers saw me coming!!) and they were great, very helpful and lots of accessories (including two sieves!) but it wasn't filled in time so ended up just having a lovely big bath with DD the night after she was born. I also took in a glass of prosecco (I think DH had DD at this point lol).

The actual birth was incredibly straight forward, I had a tens machine which was fabulous and really worked, examined at 8pm, only 2cm. At 11pm my waters broke and at just after midnight I'd had DD.
MW only just walked through the door, barely had a sniff of G&A, and out she popped.

Yy to standing, being upright really helped me and I did a shit load of pacing up and down and also on the spot when I was too tired.
We bought a few cheap shower curtains but they were incredibly slippery, I actually wouldn't recommend them. Old sheets and towels, I'd say.

I hope everyone's plans work out, it's lovely when they do but I was prepared to go to hospital if I had to. Fingers crossed for you all

Hi I'm a FTM due early October and I'm cautiously curious about a home birth. so watching with interest particularly at first timer stories here!! A water birth is particularly attractive option for me too. I'm just cautious as I've heard the admission to hospital rate for first timers is quite large? I'm just interested into how keen people feel midwifery teams were to encourage FTMs in their experience and do you think they would view it as a waste of resources if it is fairly likely you would end up transferred anyway?

I think they do encourage it, my treatment straddled two different trusts/hospitals/MW teams as I moved house at 36 weeks (not recommended!)

Both sets of MW were very positive about it. I had several home visits in the run up to it. I think they mentioned being transferred but that it wasn't more likely, just that a lot of ftm don't realise what to exect until they're in labour so perhaps decide to go in last minute. Plus any possible problems at all get sent in, sensibly.

My midwife told me and the recent study done says that the biggest reason for transfer with a first time mum is for more pain relief. Which I suppose you don't know you will want until it's happening.

My last two were home water births and I'm planning on another later this year. My first was a hospital birth but if I'd known more I would have chosen a home birth then too. (I was told you had to book a home birth by 20 weeks.)

I had an unplanned home birth with dd2. She came too fast, mw only got there around 15mins before she was born, ambulance missed it by about half an hour!

We are planning for home birth for dc3, currently 36+5, need to get to 38wks and they'll go ahead. Not having a pool, got my shopping list ready to do when I hit 38wks (no point in doing it beforehand as I'm alot closer to hospital now) - have to get a measuring jug, sieve, shower curtains and she said puppy mats/bed mats. They were meant to drop off the box this week but no one has been in touch so I'll get onto them if I don't hear by mid week. They're really keen on it though which is nice, the support definately helps.

I'm a first time mum tentatively planning a homebirth too, currently 34+4, so need to make up my mind soon!

daydream I would say they are encouraging homebirths in my area. Midwives were definitely pushing for a new scheme where you keep your options open, midwives come out to you when labour starts, and accompany you to hospital if you want, or stay with you if you want to stay at home. This seemingly has no disadvantages (and I liked the idea of getting to know the midwives in advance). Except when I finally got to meet the team, turns out the scheme doesn't apply to first time mums (they only want quick labours!) So instead I've been referred to the normal homebirth team. And of course I can still change my mind on the day, so I don't really know what the difference is!

I'm currently busy scouring ebay for a pool, and checking in with family that no one has had any complications, as that may sway my decision. My only regret if I do go ahead with the homebirth is that I can't donate the umbilical stem cells, but they only collect Mon-Fri during working hours at the hospital anyway, so not the highest chance of donating in hospital either!

howmuchisthatdoggy as long as no one else objects, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, as I do want to make an informed decision.

Howmuchisthatdoggy, I'd be interested in hearing your story too.

I had a home birth planned for dd2 but ended up with an induction in hospital as she was transverse!

Reccently found out I am pregnant again and we will have to have a home birth plan again. Dd1 labour was under 2 hours and dd2 was under an hour so absolutely petrified of an unassisted home birth!

I had my first home birth last year and am having my second home birth this year! I can't wait

Had my first Homebirth with DS2 last Sunday after a midwife centre birth 7+ years ago.

Amazing experience. He came at 37.5 weeks. My waters broke at 3am. Had mild contractions every 10-15 mins. They slowed down during the morning. Saw the midwife at about 2pm - no examination as us and the midwives wanted as little as possible. Had a super 3hr nap and some dinner. Then contractions geared up. Midwife came out at 8h30pm. I got in the pool just after 7 my 7y old came in the pool for swim too Baby came at 10h50 with no examinations. It was such a good experience we talked about maybe having a 3rd in 5 years..... Eeek

Had both babies in water, dry birth scares me.