If you had a home birth, where where you when baby arrived?

[FTM91]

Just curious as thinking of a homebirth myself.. Pool is an obvious one, but if it wasnt the pool where was it and how was the place set up? Bathroom floor? Bed? Towels? Cushions? Plastic sheets?!

In a pool.

Where were you*

In the bed.

My aunt had a home birth.. she wqs lucky to have 2 living areas is the smaller one she had a birthing pool set up and a futon type sofa thing that she has all made up with waterproof sheets, blankets, cushions etc. She gave birth on all fours knees in ground elbows resting on end of futon.

Floor every time (3). No idea how the floor was set up, I left that to DH and the midwives and have no recollection.

On the bathroom floor

Living room floor

Living room floor on my knees leaning over the sofa. Plenty of plastic backed dust sheets on the floor.

Upstairs in the bedroom.... nowhere near the bloody pool which was in the dining room 🙄 I had spent half an hour in the bathroom, sat on the loo because I was fed up of going up and down the stairs and when I finally tried to go downstairs my body went "nope!" and I delivered a few contractions later. DD was VERY quick

Pool in the conservatory with fairy lights up. Was lovely.

We only had an upstairs loo but the midwife wanted delivery downstairs so in a living room (narrow stairs with a sharp turn could be difficult if I needed to be ambulanced out. Standing, downstairs. On, as pp said lots of sheets, midwife provided some, some ours.

1. on the bed (birthing pool in the kitchen, all set up and warmed, but in the end I decided I didn’t want to get in it!)

2. on the living room floor, leaning over a coffee table / sofa

Pool in the dining room.

My 2nd was just the same @WetJan. Went upstairs to use the loo, then was contracting so hard I couldn't go down again. Dd2 born a few mins later.

Dd1 was in a pool in the living room. Was pushing for hours, hence my surprise with dd2 popping out so quickly!

On my bed, and ended up having to buy a new mattress 😂😂

In pool - was magical

Some things I regretted:

Not covering living room floor. My waters went spectacularly there in the late stages of labour before I got into the pool and I’m told by the kind cleaning angels that it was a sight to behold!

Not covering bed more. I had a PPH in the bed around 5 hours after the birth and while I was fine the new mattress wasn’t retrievable. I had a waterproof mattress cover on but the blood somehow seeped through the edges of that!

Sitting on the bed when my waters went, shouted downstairs to DH, called the hospital to request MW , had a couple of contractions & MW called back - told her to hurry up. Had a couple more contractions and got off the bed so DH could put some bubblewrap on it. Thought I better just check, reached down and delivered his head 🙂. Delivered the rest of him and sat down on the floor against the radiator, where I stated for some time awaiting first the paramedics (at the time, and still, I had no idea why DH called 999 - I was fine, baby was fine & MW was on the way) and then the MW.

He is 15 next week, you can still see the faint outline of the bloodstain on my bedroom carpet if you know where to look.

Pool in dining room - set up from week 38 or so , but not filled up !!

Gave birth in pool , laboured in pool too . Midwife gave me option of getting out to deliver but I said no ... I didn't want to move . I did get out to deliver placenta ( something I hadn't even considered ) !!! I had a natural third stage so no injection which meant a bit more time in between birth and placenta

Just some towels needed really ...

Oh and think of plan of how to empty pool .... I left that to the other half !!!

On my bed. My waters went when I was pushing so I was very thankful the midwives had been so thorough in covering the bed. There was not the least bit of mess left behind, they were truly marvellous. (And I think my Mum put any washing in the machine and dealt with that for me.)

Bathroom, on all fours on the floor.
Wasn't the plan but there you go!

If I was having another baby (I'm not, I'm 2 and very much done) and enough space in my house, I would prepare a room in advance, ground floor, with birthing pool inflated and ready to fill, a sofa or bed made up with something waterproof under a clean sheet, big pile of towels, bucket (in case of needing to go to toilet or be sick) and birthing ball.

I would also tell DH to fill the pool and tell my doula to come as soon as I suspected something was happening, as opposed to wondering whether I was in established labour for ages when I obviously was 🤦🏻‍♀️ But hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Living room. Twice in pool. Once on couch.

DC1 - on the bed, leaning over the foot board
DC2 - living room floor, leaning over sofa

I like leaning on things to birth

No new mattresses or carpet needed as I had shower curtains under me, plus mw put mats down.

On my bed, unplanned, holding onto the bedstead 😁 on all fours. No way was I lying down.

In the pool in the living room. I had to get out to deliver the placenta and it was a bit of a nightmare as the midwife said that sitting on the toilet would encourage it but I've no downstairs loo so we had to traipse upstairs but obviously I was still naked and dripping blood everywhere and we have cream carpets so it was a very complicated manoeuvre with the midwife holding a dish underneath my nether regions and my mum moving towels under me to save the carpet - probably the least dignified I've ever been really. In hindsight I wish I'd had a bucket to squat on next to the pool instead!

Bed.

Very very quick labour. DS came with the waters - midwife was only at the front door when he popped out. We'd bought a couple of cheap shower curtains to fling on the bed. Didn't have to replace it