Home birth

[Sara1988]

Hi all,

I'm 34 weeks and planning on home birth.

I wondered if anyone else on here had one/was planning on having one and could share any experiences or recommendations for how to prepare 😀

TIA

It's so nice to hear all your home birt stories - thank you!

I've partly resigned myself to having to go into hospital. I think the stats for the home birth team here are that about a third of women do have to, either during labour or once baby is born, but even if that does happen for me that's better than being in a hospital from the start.

Gummy bears, salt and 360° baby cup to drink from it.
I tried isotonic but made me sick.

My baby ended up born in hospital but it was still amazing experience and I would repeat it :)

Oh you’re definitely well placed if you are close to the hospital then. My friend, who worked at the hospital, pointed out that if I needed a transfer to theatre it would take the same time to get there, assemble a team etc as it would from the delivery suite.

I had my first baby in hospital and was left for long periods of time on a trace, then had to have drugs to speed things up as the labour wasn’t progressing. I felt sure it was because I was stuck with a belt round me for hours on end.

With DC2, things slowed down around midnight. I spoke to the MW and she told me to get some sleep and I actually managed about 5 hours before it all kicked off again properly. Much more civilised!

I had a home water birth with my second and if I'd had a third I would definitely have wanted to have that at home too.

Things may have changed since then (over 20 years ago) and may be different in different areas but my midwives brought round the kit in advance (eg gas and air). They told me that they wouldn't be able to bring pethidine so if I I thought I was likely to want that I should get a prescription in advance from my GP. I didn't, as I hadn't used it for my first, but you might want to keep your options open).

How are you going to get to hospital in an emergency, given the current state of the ambulance service?

I’ve had a hospital birth, two straightforward home births, and one planned home birth that became a hospital transfer.

If I had another baby, which I won’t be, I’d plan a home birth no question, despite the pph with the last one.

I think the midwives make an enormous difference. The one at my last birth clearly didn’t want to be there and was faffing, didn’t have the right stuff with her etc. My previous home births were fab, and being in my own bed afterwards with dh and baby was a world away from being in the postnatal ward. After my fourth baby, despite a 4 litre pph, I discharged myself as soon as baby had the all clear. The postnatal ward is not somewhere anyone would want to be.

Definitely still have a hospital bag packed. After my first baby was born I realised too late that it would have been helpful to have clean pyjamas and knickers handy for afterwards, not just pads. I'd lovingly made up the bedding in the moses basket, with a nappy, vest, babygrow and hat on top but completely forgot that I would need stuff too!

With Dc2 I transferred at 3cm dilated so I was glad I'd got the essentials for me and baby in a basket in the living room. Dh just picked up the basket and took it with us. I think the car seat must have been in the car already, although it's a good idea to have it in the house in case you transfer after baby is born.

I didn't realise it took a while to assemble a team to do an emcs. At mine with dc5 they all seemed to just appear out of nowhere. I remember the registrar shouting "theatre now" and then taking dh by the hand and saying "come on, I'll show you where to get changed" before disappearing. Then a bit later I was introduced to the surgeon and I said how funny it was that he had the same name as the Dr who had been in the delivery room earlier. He then poked his head over the screen, took his mask off and said "it's still me" which I found utterly hilarious at the time!

I don't know if it's different in different areas or if things have changed in 16 years but I was told that once the homebirth midwife is there then transfers have to be by ambulance because the midwife isn't allowed to go in your car or to leave the mum she is caring for. Although in other circumstances, dh has driven to the hospital 10 minutes away with an unconscious 12 year old as it was quicker than waiting for an ambulance. I think that's quite unusual though.

@PiggieWig that's so interesting about assembling the team - hadn't thought about that! My friend had to be transferred and she said they were there waiting for her ready to go into theatre and it was seamless!

@penguinonmybag I live around the corner from the hospital, so it doesn't really matter if their are no ambulances available. That being said, birthing mothers are a priority and ambulances aren't really an issue in our area thankfully.

@WaitingForMojo being in the hospital after birth is one of the things I'm dreading the most actually! I just want to home with my family around me.

@elliejjtiny midwife said that depending on circumstance I can go in ambulance without partner or he can drive me in and they'll follow

Where do you live that ambulances aren't an issue? I'm not aware of any GPs who can get them urgently even for v sick patients.

I was aiming for a home birth with my first - most of the labour went OK but I ended up being transferred to hospital in the end (by ambulance) as the baby seemed to be a bit stuck. She was born in hospital with an episiotomy about 40 mins later and after a couple of hours in the delivery suite I was allowed to go home, albeit wearing a nightie as I'd forgotten to pack trousers in my hospital bag!

Generally it was a good experience, I was pretty relaxed being at home for most of the labour and there was no way I wanted to end up on a post-natal ward, was very grateful to get home and order a pizza and chill out on my sofa rather than being in hospital. Pregnant again now and planning another home birth, hoping it will be a bit more straightforward this time round.

I work in a large school and we've had to call out for an ambulance a number of times this year and they've arrived in under 10 minutes. As I've said, I live so close to the hospital it doesn't matter anyway.

I'm going to make a really stupid obvious point that I nevertheless partly overlooked, because everyone around me singing the praises of home birth said how blissful and wonderful and gorgeous it was - but it still hurts! Like really bloody hurts! I remember being slightly surprised part way through and being reminded that a full human baby is still exiting you even if you can watch your own telly while it happens

The whole get into your own bed straight after and send dad out to the chippy is FANTASTIC though

@TheScientists don't worry, have been watching lots of very graphic, very close up videos to remind myself 😅 I think for me though it's about making it more manageable cause so much of pain is mental aswell as physical. To me hospitals are places of death and illness and I know that will make it worse.

I had one with my 2nd. It was nice, 1st in hospital was also nice. I'm currently expecting no 3 and not sure where I'll go.

• rented a pool, filled it but midwives said it was too early to get in and then it was cold but the time they said I could.
• First midwife to turn up stank of stale fags and my Labour completely stopped, so she went away (did offer to stay but I literally couldn't breathe around her) and I had to open every window in my house in winter. It was awful.
• 10 hours later midwives got stuck in traffic, so we had to call an ambulance. Midwives walked in to see head out. And left within a couple if hours. They took 2hrs to get there- I didn't realise how far the homebirth team would be coming from when all the previous ones I'd met lived in my town. Maybe check that.

We bought plastic sheeting, used old duvets and super large puppy pad things- laid out on foam mattresses that had one end propped on a sofa. I knew from my first that I'd want to be on hand and knees but hands higher. You have to do all the clean up and disposal of mess yourself so DP just rolled everything in the plastic and chucked. All they take away is the placenta! You can ask GP for a painkiller prescription in advance of homebirth- I didn't know this and had to do it all with a tens. I'd also advise to sort out some soft lighting so if the midwife want a look you don't need to turn the big light on. And plan your route to the toilet/ shower for after the birth- if you're naked and bleeding you might want to cover any carpets! I did really enjoy being in my own house afterwards and the quiet of it. But it was slightly surreal too. They worst part is the internal exams so I requested none for the 2nd birth and midwives were happy with that saying that they aren't actually necessary and fairly unreliable.

The transfer to hospital definitely does slow things down in an emergency. Depending on the exact circs the theatre team may be called when a patient’s en route, but for most things you need to transfer-in, go into a room, be assessed by the obstetrician and then go to theatre/join the queue for theatre. The transfer-in is on top of rather than instead of the transfer down the corridor to theatre.

Depending on the region / trust your midwives may have a kit or you may need to prep your own.

Painters plastic sheets! And then some old bed aheets / towels you can bin or don't mind getting messey.
Plan where you want to birth make it cosy and create a little bin with all the bits you will need for that area.
I wanted yo a home birth but plans changed. I had a big basket of puppy pads, protective sheet, old towels, pads and disposable pants, tens machine, hot water he
Bottle, flannels (warm compress for perinium). Then also a snack stash with energy drinks. Lots of pillow for comfort, exercise ball, warm led lights.

That's what I prepped.

@Greybeardy must differ from trust to trust as my friend who had a homebirth got transferred and went straight into surgery. They were literally at the door waiting for her.

@OneFastDuck I've been going back and forth on cervical examinations as I know you can refuse them and they can actually slow things down as you're interfering with cervix but I also imagine in the moment it might be nice to know how far along you are?

@OneFastDuck also, our home birth team work by post code. So my midwives only deliver in my post code, so fingers crossed travel won't be an issue.

If you are having a pool buy a new hose

I recommend looking at https://www.homebirthsupplies.co.uk/ for all sorts of things, but especially if you're planning a water birth as you'll need a food grade hose / connectors etc.

My thoughts on cervical examinations is they're only a guess and for me, not worth the potential disruption to your focus.

You can decide in labour if you do or don't want them. All the midwives I spoke to said they had plenty of other methods to know how close you are, I was surprised tbh as I thought they'd be quite pushy about doing them. Some women don't mind them at all but I found them horrific with my first birth.
I was 2cm after 25hrs of contractions so they said I'd be ages yet baby was out in 90 minutes. I'm not sure how useful they are expect in emergencies- if anything started going wrong I'd have definitely let them do one.
I'd say plan the birth you want but be open to everything and be aware of all your options. They only women I know who've been upset about their births are the ones who had very strict plans that didn't happen.

@OneFastDuck yeah I've heard horror stories of hospitals being unwilling to admit women without cervical examinations but, as with a lot of this anecdotal evidence, the stories come from 10 years ago or American hospitals. Can't fault my midwives for respecting my wishes so far. Will speak to them about cervical examinations at next meeting!

@Laladoudou already reserved all my bits with another company! Didn't expect there to be so much available to rent!