Money Saving and Homebirth

greentomato

I am planning a homebirth for my second baby, so this thread is very useful, thank you. I've been wondering what I really need. My last birth was in hospital and I'd rather not repeat the experience if I can help it. I can't think of anything better than being at home this time!

Anyway, a friend kindly gave me her birthing pool for just £20 and some waterproof mats. However, there are still loads of other accessories I need to buy for it (liner, pump, hose etc) and it all adds up to quite a lot which I wasn't quite prepared for! But I shopped around online and managed to get some of it a bit cheaper. I got my birth pool filling and emptying kit from www.Sobaby.co.uk as it was cheaper than other places, plus they do free delivery.
Also Boots now sells birthing pools, liners, pumps etc so its worth checking on the website in case they have any special offers on (e.g. I just got the pool liner for £16 instead of £20). Also I just got a bed protector from Boots (in case of waters breaking, or if I end up giving birth on the bed anyway, and for breast milk leakage afterwards!) this was also on special offer. (plus I used a Boots voucher code and got a bit more off).

I'm just about to order the rest of the things from the Active Birth centre - I like the idea of the healing herbal bath too, (which is half-price at the moment!). I took arnica tablets last time and the midwife was impressed at how quickly I healed up.

When I told my husband how much all the birthing pool stuff was costing he said 'but its nothing compared to how much we spent on parking at the hospital last time....' :rotfl:

Sorry if my post is a bit money-focused compared to the rest of yours, but this is MSE after all, I can't help it!!!

foreversomeday

Yes, I have just ordered my birth pool. I got the Birth Pool In a Box from the NCT website and we are just going to get a garden hose and tap adapter from a hardware/garden shop and then siphon the water out with the hose afterwards. You have to strain the water before you do this but a cheap sieve costs about £1.50 from our local market or I could even use a fishing net! We already have a foot pump so hopefully we can blow it up using that.

I wish we had saved the cardboard from all the baby equipment now as I didn't think of using that to protect the carpets. I have heard though that picnic blankets are good because they are washable and they have a plastic side and a comfortable side.

Having a home birth will save us on hospital parking as someone rightly said and it just makes more sense to me - why should I leave the comfort of my own home unless I have to?