I delivered my baby myself at home - AMA

[notyouraverageuser]

I only have positive things to say about my labour/birth, and with it also being a fairly unusual scenario I thought I'd offer to share some insight for anyone considering a home birth, or just anyone curious in general. So feel free to ask anything. :-)

I hope you promptly correct him.
Annoyed me the midwives just assumed I wasn't capable of catching my own baby so he got the 'well done', he did correct them though.

Congratulations! 💐

A risk I'd not be willing to take but glad it was all a positive experience for you

Enjoy your new baby ❤️

Congratulations! And well done for feeling confident and well informed enough to make a decision based on what felt right for you! 😊 (I also can't believe the amount of criticism you've received on this post)

I'm currently expecting my first and, being low risk, the midwife has already mentioned home birth as an option for me. I'm quite torn.. I think I'm a little too risk averse to confidently choose a home birth, however, I also get horrible anxiety in hospitals which isn't ideal for labour. I have a lot of reading and thinking to do!

For anyone currently unsure.. I'd really recommend the book "Am I allowed?" as a starting point. It's given me a lot to think about!

glad everything turned out okay, i did gasp a little. I hemmoraged with 1 of mine and she came out a bit blue. Id be terrified if I was not in a birthing unit for that - i was also low risk in my 20s!

would you do it again?

Well done OP; I had a HB with my second. It was about a million times safer than my incredibly unsafe first hospital birth due to poor care - with no pain relief at all (with correspondingly dreadful antenatal care which almost killed DC).

One of the things I liked about it was the more caseloading approach as well which meant I saw the same couple of MWs the whole way through. I had thought about the possibility of delivering myself as my first labour was very fast, but it was about 6 hours start to finish, the MW came straight away and stayed and it was brill. Nothing better than getting in your own bed afterwards.

I still don’t know how you ‘mitigate haemorrhaging’. Can you elaborate on that?

Unless you kept a couple of units in your fridge and some uterotonic drugs on standby?

I have to say, I think unmonitored births/free births are about luck more than judgement. You’re lucky there weee no complications. Some you may have ‘felt’, plenty you wouldn’t.

I did the same - good on you.

What is your job?

On the hemorrhaging- I had a couple of conversations with the MW about that as a few women in my family have hemorrhaged after birth - the first line treatment they use in hospital is brought by the MWs anyway, and an ambulance would then be called and there are manual techniques to stem the bleeding in the meantime.

Thr risk of PPH is much lower in HBs, the highest risk is for C sections. Any augmentation of labour raises the risk of PPH.

I wish people would read the OP, she didn't have a planned Free Birth, it was a born before arrival!

I wish people would read the OP, she didn't have a planned Free Birth, it was a born before arrival!

We know. But the OP said she’d have gone for free birth if they hadn’t allowed her to have a home birth.

And I want to know, as an HCP, what ‘mitigation’ she had done/put in place regarding haemorrhage.

@Ithurtsthebackofmyeyes well no, not everybody does know, looking at the responses.

Why do you think the OP owes you a response on how she gave birth? And as she didn't actually have a free birth I doubt she'd worked through every possible permutation of what could happen.

This could have been quite a useful thread for people considering home birth who were curious about what happens if the MW didn't get there on time, but as usual, it's not.

My first child was stillborn. I was low risk and we had been contemplating a homebirth. The support and care I got in hospital was amazing, as it was for all my subsequent children. Were you able to monitor baby's heart rate during delivery?.

I'm glad it went well for you but I can think if nothing more terrifying

I'm currently expecting my first and, being low risk, the midwife has already mentioned home birth as an option for me
I’m surprised the midwife presented it as an option for a first time birth.

Why does it surprise you that she offered a service which is available on the NHS? Patients are given their options and make their own informed decision. It would be wrong for a medical professional to conceal an option. I'd be very cross if my midwife made the decision for me that home birth wasn't suitable and therefore didn't tell me about it. I'm happy to be told it's an option but not recommend for my situation due to x y z that should be my decision.

Why do you think the OP owes you a response on how she gave birth?

Because she started an ‘Ask Me Anything’ thread…?

And because I am curious to know more about her earlier statement about ‘mitigating’ against haemorrhage.

You don’t know my motivation for asking, do you?

Fair enough. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised there’re differences in how midwives do things. The subject of home birth was never brought up with me and I just thought it was something you had to specially request. Especially given the material I was given said it was a higher risk for first timers. I thought it was just like how you don’t get asked if you want a natural or c-section birth unless you request a c-section- or maybe that’s different too.

Why do you think the OP owes you a response on how she gave birth? And as she didn't actually have a free birth I doubt she'd worked through every possible permutation of what could happen.

But as she said she intended to free birth should a home birth not be available, should she not have worked through every possible permutation of what could happen?

Or basically, is the truth not that it's actually impossible to do this, and therefore reckless and irresponsible to contemplate a free birth?

Congratulations, I’m all for home birth.

im curious what you meant by this though: as well as being prepared for it moreso than midwives would have been if it did happen which was in relation to haemorrhage.

how do you feel you were more prepared to deal with a haemorrhage than midwives?

I’ve been asking this. But to no avail. I suspect it is a throwaway comment as she’s an HCP to reduce questions, but I’m curious as to the preparations.

If she, for example, had a stock of uterotonic drugs in the house, those are preps beyond a normal birthing mother.

I was refused a home birth due to some bogus scan results that turned out to be incorrect (my placenta was apparently nearly at deaths door - which it wasn’t and confirmed when I delivered!)

I begged and begged to be allowed on the birth unit which they agreed to the day I went into labour. I was so relieved and relaxed, enjoying my labour that I got in the car 3 minutes before my DD was born and I delivered her myself while my husband was driving! No tears, no stress - very happy chilled baby and happy chilled mother. Paramedics arrived within 10 minutes. I so, so wished I’d free birthed at home and ignored them as it would have saved me the stress of doing it in the car!

@ThomasinaLivesHere home birth is an option for any pregnancy. It's the midwifes job to inform you of all options and offer her advice and knowledge in terms of what the risks and benefits are in your particular situation. I'm glad my midwife has talked to me about it, it's a shame that not all midwifes seem to!

Me too, at home with DP. I was also born this way.

Yeah I’m a midwife and I’m very unsure how any woman who’s just given birth can be more prepared for a pph than a midwife. She won’t be able to cannulate herself, give IV fluids or meds, won’t be able to do effective uterine massage and certainly not bimanual compression. 🤷🏻‍♀️. All things midwives are prepared for at any home birth