Homebirth tips please :)

[Mamababynumber2]

Hi everyone,

Looking for people who have previously had a homebirth or planning on having one.
What best advice can you give? List of essentials and non essentials to make the experience at home nicer/ more comfortable.
Any tips really!
Thank you

I’m booked for a homebirth but obviously whether or not it happens is down to what happens on the day! We did a hypnobirthing course (Wise Hippo) which I found really, really helpful and we have borrowed a birthing pool. I’ve got a hell of a lot of towels in preparation and have just ordered some cheap shower curtains from amazon to keep the floor clean! We’ve also got some essential oils - lavender and clary sage to go in the oil burner. I have a GP appointment tomorrow to discuss prescribing pethadine as this is my first baby and the midwives in my trust can administer it at home if needed, meaning that if I have a long latent phase I might be able to get some rest in the early stages. If you are likely to labour more quickly then I would say that it’s not an essential.

Sorry this is more a random stream of conciousness than a helpful list!!

I had the pool which came with all relevant bits (hose, tap connectors, tarpaulin etc), old towel, an old bath mat to get in and out of the pool and a fan. That was about all we needed!

They gave me a list of stuff like...6 towels (used 2), a bucket, hot water bottle etc etc, but we didn’t use any of it. I had snacks and drinks for the midwives too, but they didn’t touch them despite being there nearly 7 hours. They also provided a ‘birth bag’ with all the medical bits, which I had from 37 weeks. I also had a hospital bag packed and by the door in case of a transfer.

The TENS machine was good in the early stages, I had a nice scented candle, a water bottle with a straw inside so I didn’t have to tip it up to drink, a playlist I put together and some lucozade sport, fruit, a couple of energy bars etc. Honestly though, I had loads of stuff I didn’t need.

I had a fairly long labour, about 36 hours start to finish, 3 hours of pushing etc but being in my own home with supportive midwives meant I was calm, felt in control and coped fine.

Definitely planning a homebirth for this one too!

I’ve had both of mine at home.

I recommend seeing if there is a home birth group local to you or join a Facebook group. There’s a good one called Home Birth Chat UK.

Think about your preparation. I did lots of visualisation about how I thought my births would be. Natal hypnotherapy and TENS are great. I used a bit of gas and air pushing with my 2nd but really the TENS was fantastic.

You can ask your midwife if there is a birth pool scheme local to you if you want to hire a pool (I had both of mine on dry land which was perfect for me, so you don’t have to hire a pool).

And really I just cannot recommend it enough. Both of my births were wonderful and especially with my 2nd, it was nice to have my dd there too.