Home Births??

[SJPfan]

I went for a tour of the maternity ward this morning and the midwife was talking about how beneficial home births are.

I have too much fluid, am due to have a bigger baby (apparently) and he is back to back at the moment, therefore will need more pain relief. According to what I'm reading these are points against home births.

On the other side I live about 10 mins away from the hospital so if I did need intervention I'm not far away. I'm 32+4 so I have about 3 weeks to decide!

Has anyone had anything similiar to this? any advice greatly received.

If it's definately not an option, at least I know and then I can get it out of my head!!

XXx

Hi and congratulations on your pregnancy!

I had a home birth but only decided at the last minute. The midwife sent me for a scan to make sure that the baby's position was good. She also visited me at home to run through what to expect, the kind of things that could happen etc. Like you I also lived fairly near the hospital so decided that I would like to try anyway. Everything went fine in the end - I am so glad I did it!

You could say you were interested, they would then give you lots of info plus the scan then decide for yourself that way. And the hospital is quite close, as you said. If it was possible and it all worked out fine it would be an amazing experience! It was so lovely spending our first hours together, at home, as a family, with no-one else around! (Once MW had cleaned up and gone.) Magical moments.

How do you feel about the pain of labour in general? I knew I didn't want a general and was prepared to try for as little (non-invasive) as possible. In the end I used a TENS machine (great for the early contractions, before MW arrives) then gas and air and found I could bear it. In a way I wanted to feel it. To relax I kept telling myself that my body was designed to do this and I had no reason to believe that it wouldn't be able to. I think it helped. Being at home also meant we had a very relaxing ambience, with dh playing music, oil burner etc. Doing some yoga, even if only breathing (out with the pain) helped as well.

Good luck and if you decide to go for it, I really hope it's the wonderful, life-affirming, positive experience that it can be!

If you think you want a homebirth but are not sure, I would say prepare for one anyone. You can go into hospital at any time. You can't come home to have your baby once in hospital though.

I've had 3 of my 4 at home, and love it. There's a homebirth thread somewhere. Sorry, can't link it for you as LO is smearing me with cake.

'prepare for one anyway'.

am distracted, sorry

Have you seen the www.homebirth.org.uk site? There's masses of info on pros and cons to homebirth there that you may find useful.

I don't know what the risks of excess fluid are, so can't comment on that. I'm not sure if that issue is covered on Angela Horn's site (above) - if not you might want to join the homebirthUK mailgroup and ask on there - there are a lot of women that have had a lot of homebirths in the face of nearly every obstacle imagineable, so I'm sure someone there will be able to help.

Re. large babies - a large baby doesn't mean you will have a difficult birth. Do you have a family history of larger than average babies? What were your mother's, aunt's, grandmother's births like? There are relatively few cases where the baby is genuinely too big to fit through the mother's pelvis and those cases generally present as a non-progressive labour - there's plenty of time to have another cup of tea, play another game of scrable and decide transfering to hospital might be a good idea, no blue lights required...

Re pain relief - there are a whole host of factors that will influence how much pain relief you need. The baby's position at the start of labour is one, but probably as important (if not more so) is how safe and relaxed you feel in the environment in which you are labouring. Fear releases adrenaline and adrenaline is VERY counterproductive to a straightforward labour. A lot of women that do birth at home find they need far less pain relief than they expect (one of my MWs commented she always had G&A in the car, but rarely brought it into the house). DD was 9lb 12 - I used TENS for the 1st stage and nothing for the 2nd (and I wasn't being stoic, I just didn't feel the need for anything more). It's worth asking what options there would be at a home birth as some MWs can give pethidine at home births.

As has been said, if you think you might want a home birth then plan for that as it's much easier to go to hospital at the last minute. DH started off dubious, but since we had DD at home he'll sing the praises to anyone and everyone (as will the outlaws, my parents, my sister...).

I had a hospital birth with ds1. he was 9lb 1oz, it was a horribly long, drawn-out labour, ending with 2 hours of pushing and him being ventoused out of me.
I Had all pain relief going.
it was pretty unpleasant tbh.

with ds2, I had a planned homebirth and it ws just lovely. he was 9lb 5oz AND he was back to back.
I delivered him with no pain relief whatsoever. in fact, it didn't hurt as much as ds1 did (in between the having pain relief) and I coped with it all a lot better,
the birth was quicker, despite him being back to back and I think a lot of that was because I was so much more relaxed and in control.

I am now a firm homebirth advocate. a big baby is no reason not to have one and juist bwecause baby is back to back atm doesn't mean he still will be at term,
and of course, it's perfectly possible to birth a back to back baby with just gas and air (or nothing!)