Moneysaving home birth essentials?!

theoldcynic

Wow it's so lovely to read all of your stories and your advice! Thank you so much for sharing!

Bought lots of towels in the sale today for us (to replace ones we'll use for the birth) and for the baby.

I feel so much more confident after reading all your replies, and realise it does not have to be costly at all. And we don't have to go round waterproofing the house as much as I envisaged!

Someone even offered us a birthing pool which was too far for us to pick up but i'm so grateful for the generosity of spirit on this forum. But now I know I can sterilise a second hand one with milton I will definitely consider that route.

I'll certainly let you know how it goes!

Frith

I hardly bought anything! The homebirth pack (delivered at 37 weeks) was enormous and had everything the midwives wanted.

I did get a plastic groundsheet which went on my bedroom floor. I was kneeling down for the whole of DS2's labour so ended up kneeling on lots of pillows so threw those away afterwards. So some old pillows would have been useful.

I'm also sick *a lot* in labour and could only find a manky old bucket in the garden that I had mixed cement in previously so a new bucket would have been nice.

Other thing I don't think anyone has mentioned is it was really nice to have 2 electric fans going, pointing at me all the time. It was 34 degrees (August 2003) when son was born and we were all so hot.

Blue_Monkey

I see you've got towels now, but in case anyone else is looking for some, Ikea does some large-ish ones for less than £2 I think.... Shame they are white, but you can just throw them out afterwards if necessary.

When I had DD in December we were at home and used Birth Pool in a Box - think it was about £150, but well worth it... There's no way I would've been as comfortable in the bath; I was on all fours with my legs/knees wide apart... Plus the water was high up enough to cover my bum - not sure you'd get that in a bath....

Good luck - mine was a totally amazing and magical experience.

One thing I would say, which is pretty unrelated, is to try and find out whether your area is short-staffed in terms of midwives... Ours is, and I was 'warned 'that I might not get my homebirth - but I'd also been told that I could insist on it. Lo and behold when we called the labour ward they told me I'd need to go in - OH told them I wasn't budging and eventually the midwives came out to me - like another poster, only one made it for the birth and the other one just as I was having cuddles with DD.

I'm excited for you It's so amazing

barbiedoll

I'd just like to echo the poster who said to make sure that you rest after your home birth. If your baby is born at home, you will need the baby to be checked over by your GP or by a qualified midwife who can perform the required "newborn check". The midwife should organise this for you but it's always worth ringing your GP the following day (if you give birth at the weekend, ring first thing on Monday) to make sure that they're aware of your new arrival. DO NOT be fobbed off by the receptionists who may expect you to take your baby to the surgery, even if you feel great and you fancy a walk out, I wouldn't suggest taking a brand new baby to a surgery full of sick people!

And don't start running around doing the washing and ironing either, a few days lazing around and getting to know your new baby is a very good idea. If you're planning on breastfeeding, you'll appreciate a rest, but however you feed them, babies are very hard work during the early weeks so make sure that you pace yourself, keeping the visitors to a minimum is also a good idea at first.

Most home births are lovely and research shows that women are much happier and recover more quickly, when they are at home. They don't panic as much (everyone freaks out when they get into a hospital, including me and I work in one!) and they don't tend to spend hours lying on a bed thinking about their pain. They are more likely to walk around just doing stuff and keeping their mind occupied, which means that they cope much better with the contractions. You'll be fine (as will your furniture lol!) and do let us know how it goes afterwards. I'm very jealous, if I'd had more confidence at the time, I'd have stayed at home to have my baby.
Good luck!

Savvy_Sue

Blue_Monkey wrote: »

One thing I would say, which is pretty unrelated, is to try and find out whether your area is short-staffed in terms of midwives... Ours is, and I was 'warned 'that I might not get my homebirth - but I'd also been told that I could insist on it. Lo and behold when we called the labour ward they told me I'd need to go in - OH told them I wasn't budging and eventually the midwives came out to me

Good point - I put the wind up our hospital midwives by thinking I was going into labour over a weekend, a week or so before my 'rota for home birth' had been drawn up. Their suggestion was that I should go in to be checked over, I politely declined (because I knew if I did that they wouldn't let me home again if I WAS in labour!) so a willing volunteer was found from the community midwives.

It was a false alarm ... you think you'll know if it's not your first, but you don't necessarily!

The midwives who liked doing home births were fab, I found. One of them told me that if my GP threatened not to cover my pregnancy, I could ask for midwifery cover only. He caved in for DS2, and for DS3 he just wrote along the lines of "I still think you're wrong, but since I won't be able to change your mind we'll just get on with it."

Miss_Money

i gave birth on wednesday, i used the birthpool in a box. its BIG! i couldn't sit comfortably in my bath whilst pregnant never mind being able to wallow how i liked. in the pool i could stretch out fully and i needed to. the hoses are sterile and the water is kept at 36-37c it didn't go cold. regarding mess.... it varies from woman to woman in my past 2 home births there was very little mess. unfortunately i hemoraged after this birth and had to go to hospital. if it weren't for the tarpaulin covering the carpet and the plastic on the settee the living room would now look like a blood bath. i say prepare for worst case and if it doesnt happen bonus! btw even though i bled too much after i still would have done it the way i did. i had a 3 hour labour and the water helped imensly. good luck!!

theoldcynic

Wow congratulations Miss_Money! I'm so glad you and baby are okay. How heartwarming to hear that you would still have your baby at home. Yes I think it's better to prepare for the worst case scenario. My OH read this thread last night and he agreed. This thread is great preparation for us both. Thanks again

Corelli

Hi, I'm popping up again to say that my husband reckons that HB is definitely best from the dad's point of view as well. He is on his own territory, welcoming midwifes into his home, he knows where every thing is and can be completely involved. I am so glad I had mine at home having heard so many things about hospital births.

For my last I was meant to be going into hospital as I had gestational diabetes but talking it over with an independant midwife I felt sure of my facts to insist on doing it at home. So, my labour started early and I phoned the hospital to say I had started and that I wasn't going into hospital. The MW I spoke to started to say I was not allowed to do that and then remembered that the law is that they were obliged to send a MW. So my normal midwife came round with the head of midwifery to try and persuade me to go in. Being in the throws of strong contractions isn't the best of bargainig positions so I'm glad my husband and good massaging/aromatherapy practitioner friend was there to back me up. I agreed I would keep monitering my bloods and go in if they varied, then I got on with it, calling the midwife when it got closer.

In hindsight I do rather regret the chaos to the schedules I must have caused but not the end result for us all. The community midwives however all said how much they enjoyed doing home births. My only slight regret is that my daughter could not wake in time to be there for the actual birth. She was upset about that for years.

Now the same trust have a specialist HB consultant and have a poster up about it in the hospital inviting women in to talk to them to see if HB is an option they would like to consider.

Enjoy your new baby Old Cynic and have some strong happy birthing vibes from me.

C x

mildred1978

I wouldn't go too mad if I were you OP. Of the 8 people I know who planned a home birth for their first baby (myself included) only 1 managed it.

I spent ages preparing for mine, but my son had other ideas and had to be induced out (plus forceps). My birthing ball, pool, shower curtains, old towels etc went completely unused.

The TENS was brilliant though (I bought mine). Saw me all the way through to my spinal (was prepped for c-section invade forceps didn't work).

rachbc

My fav homebirth tip was to make the bed as normal then put a plastic dust sheet on top, then another normal sheet - you have nice cotton on the bed rather than plastic then can just whip off the top sheet and plastic after and have a nice clean bed to get into and snuggle your baby.

Though tbh I had first at home and moved abotu so much we'd have had to cover the whole flat in plastic to be sure of having him on it. I really don't rememebr much mess - and the mws did a great job cleaning up whilst I had a brew

My mw bought a washable bed pad that I put under me afterwards - mainly for leaky boobs than anythign gory!

ETA - knew I shouldn't have read this thread - its made me super broody - I still regret being persuaded to be induced with DD and neding up having her in hopsital - I really wnat another home birth