# UK ladies... I want a home birth



## Lizzybee

Midwife is ok with this, OH likes idea. I can go to an info meeting in december. Im due in March. 
I plan to just chil, have a bath when i want etc. What I want to know is any bits of advice like, cleaning up after, good positions, things to have handy. Big no no's etc. 
I have 2 dogs, how can i make this less traumatic for them?


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## Lizzybee

Read some other posts that helped but none talk about cleaning up. Or how long midwife sticks around for. Anyone ever had complaints from neighbours about noises?


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## MandaAnda

_[edited - please read the forum rules]_

There isn't much clean up though. You may want some old towels, maybe a dust sheet or cheap shower curtain. The midwives can bring inco pads. If you have a water birth, a lot is contained in there. The midwives will tidy up a good deal. If you have a doula, she can help with that as well. 
There are no no nos. It's your home, you do what is best. Same with positioning, do what feels good. If you know baby is back to back, you may like to try certain positions. A birth ball may be a good investment to help direct baby's head onto your cervix.
Have handy whatever you feel will help and make you comfy.
Midwives usually make sure there are no postpartum bleeding issues, you and baby are comfy, feeding getting going, and then may write notes or do it elsewhere. Most are gone within a couple of hours after the birth, I'd say.
And you can warn your neighbors or not. I told a couple that's moved in next door, but I've not told the single bloke on the other side that I never see. Many don't notice at all.


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## Lizzybee

Thanks thats really helpful. 
I have a yoga ball - do you think that would work? It looks the same!


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## MandaAnda

Lizzybee said:


> Thanks thats really helpful.
> I have a yoga ball - do you think that would work? It looks the same!

It is the same. :thumbup:


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## Miss406

I had two dogs when I had my second home birth too. 
For me, my dogs were out in the garden whilst I laboured and gave birth in my lounge. 

Best of luck


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## Smiler82

Can't comment on the dogs as we are not pet owners, but I do remember being surprised by how much space the midwives take up with all their stuff, ours brought in little suitcases! You will have 2 midwives with you, plus DH and you will want space to walk around freely, use your ball etc. Are you planning a water birth? If so, the pool takes up a lot of space too. And the midwives are very fussy about the water temperature - constantly asking DH to go to the kitchen and turn on the appropriate tap to get the temp just right. So with DH constantly going back and forth to the kitchen plus the pipes going from the taps to the pool I guess dogs will just get in the way and be confused as to what's going on. I would say confine them to one room or the garden and try to arrange a sitter who can take them away?

Again, if you have a pool, the clean up job is huge. The midwives don't do this and it took DH ages to empty it, clean it and pack it away. But if you're not having a pool then I don't think there will be too much mess. I just asked around friends and family to raid their airing cupboards and donate any old towels they didn't want. Have some set aside for you and keep some aside for the baby. You will need a swing bin or something too so the midwives can throw stuff away. They'll provide the bin liners though and take the bags away with them. So really you'll just have the towels and sheets to get rid of afterwards. We rearranged our lounge furniture too but that doesn't take long to put back to normal.

We went to B and Q and bought a dust sheet. We covered the sofa with it, then went to a charity shop and bought an king size bed sheet to put over the dust sheet (the dust sheet is plastic) and that was just fine. I gave birth in the pool, then got out and lay on the sofa and was perfectly comfortable. I bled a lot due to a tear but it didn't spoil the sofa at all. We have laminate flooring so it didn't matter too much if anything got on there but we did have a plastic liner down beneath the pool. If you have a carpet you don't want spoiling I would put something on it that you won't slip on, like a tarpaulin or something.

I would keep snacks and cold drinks close by, but you might not feel like eating, I didn't. I drank a lot of water though, and really regret not buying straws! It sounds silly but sipping from a cup was awkward. We also weren't organised enough to put food in the kitchen for the midwives so DH ended up making tea and toast for them whilst I was in labour. It would've been better if we just had some sandwiches or something they could go and get whenever they wanted.

Re positions, yeah just do whatever is comfortable. I thought a bath would be great, but actually found it very uncomfortable so didn't stay in long. I also had a yoga ball and mat, and had planned on doing moves I'd learned in my pregnancy yoga class but in the end I didn't! You just don't know how you're going to feel. I found leaning on DH very good, and at one point I stacked up all the cushions on one end of the sofa and hunched over them, that was good too. But your body will tell you what to do, just go with the flow. Once I was in the pool I hung over the edge literally for hours. When you're in labour they will ask to check how far dilated you are, so have a think about where you would want that to happen. The best place is in bed as it is easier for them to get inside, but I did find it very hard getting up the stairs so I only let them check me twice then once I was in the pool that was it. If you have any way of making an area where you can lie comfortably and they can sit by you easily enough to do a proper examination then that's worth considering. My SIL has a chaise long in her lounge, that would've been perfect :D

Oh and we had no complaints from the neighbours! In fact ours had building work going on and DH went round there and asked them to keep the noise down, haha :rofl:
Good luck with it, hope you get the birth you want x


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## MandaAnda

I emptied, cleaned and up away my friend's pool (a doula will do/help do this if you have one, usually), and it was under two hours. Not a big job at all. I had an aquarium pump (under £13) that pumped out 98% of the water. Then I gathered up the liner and emptied that last little bit in the garden, rolled up and binned the liner. Then made some Milton solution to wipe down the pool. Then deflated and rolled up. A very easy and straightforward job, IMO.


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## MrsWatson

Just echoing what others have said really, I had my first home birth 2.5 years ago, and planning another for this one that is due in June.

It was an abolutely amazing experience!

I prepared 2 bags - a home birth bag and a hospital bag just in case a transfer was needed.

In the home birth bag I had an old showercurtain, old towels - there really was nothing to clear up afterwards, the midwives took care of it all!

I also had an old beanbag, that was a godsend to be able to sit on after giving birth! 

I practiced antenatel yoga beforehand and used lots of positions, including squatting, leaning on my ball and evenually gave birth on all 4's.

I had a second degree tear, and the midwives were able to stitch me up at home using a torch, as we had the lights dimmed for a gentle birth.

I didn't feel like eating, so had some still energy drinks instead - they were actually foul! Next time I will just get some full sugar squash in!

Can't wait to do it all again!


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## Smiler82

Oh yes, must 2nd the use of a hospital bag just in case. I don't want to scare you but I tore too badly to be stitched up at home, so was great to just be able to pick it up and go knowing everything we needed for me and baby were all in one place x


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## BunnyN

Hb was a wonderful experience for me. The MW did most of the clean up. We used bed protectors (sold at the supermarket for incontinence but the MW might provide them) and put a waterproof sheet on the matress under the sheets. Next time I'd lay out everything needed for after the birth in one place because I thought I was fairly orginized but I was too zoned out after to remember where the clean sheets I wanted were when the MW asked to change them for me and she had to hunt for some. Same goes for anything else you will want like baby's first clothes and clean nighty etc so that MW or whoever can get them easily for you.


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## Lizzybee

Wow thanks everyone, some really Useful info here. Im not using a pool but had thought about the bath. My bathroom is huge so thats a good option and the dogs can be downstairs then. Thanks for the tips on the hospital bag, ill defo do that. 
I have tons of towels and dustsheets so i wont throw them away! 
I didnt know I had to provide food for the mw's. DH will probably think thats really cheeky! Lol. 
Anyway cheers all, I'll be back on after ive been to the meeting on 4th dec if I have any other q's.


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## Smiler82

I think it's appreciated if you provide food for the midwives, mine were with me 12 hours straight at home, then stayed another 2 hours to get me sorted in hospital. I actually feel really bad that all they had in that time was tea, toast and a couple of biscuits! :) Good luck for the meeting x


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## Kess

I have two dogs, and both were in the room with me while I laboured. I found giving fusses calmed me. They were penned at one end of the room with an opened out playpen. One of them got a bit unsettled when I made a few noises, but my Mom held him up so he could see me and then he was fine. If you're worried, DAP diffusers are great for calming dogs, as are Skullcap and Valerian tablets (dorwest herbs).

Re. neighbours, I'm in an end terrace with quite thin walls, but next door didn't even know we'd had the baby! I didn't make much noise, and you may well not either (HB is less painful than hospital birth generally) but even if you do, so what? :)

I am not sure who cleaned up after my home water birth. I was ensconsed in bed with DH and newborn, and when I got up the next morning everything was sorted. May have been Mom, Dad or Sister, though or MW - we had a houseful! My MW lent me the birthpool though, so that may make a difference.

I loved my HB, and will have another next time.


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## BunnyN

Its good to provide food but it's not like they are going to sit down to a three course meal half way through your labour so snacks are fine. Just make sure it's something you don't need to fuss over and they can help themselves to because once labour gets serious you wont be thinking about food. I laid out food but I had a slow labour and by the time the midwife came I'd been in labour almost 24 hrs and it was night time so I couldn't be bothered to explain to her about food. By breakfast time I was past explaining anything. I had said to OH to point it out to her but he forgot to offer her anything until after LO was born the following afternoon. So we starved the poor woman. She kept telling me I needed to eat to keep up my energy, looking back she probably was so hungry that she couldn't get food off her mind! I was fine becuase I had regular snacks during the night when she was resting. Next time I think I'll lay the stuff out where it can easily be seen with a note saying to "help yourself".

Which reminds me, I don't know what your house setup is but we prepaired a spare room for her. Not some thing they expect but it meant she could go and have a snooze when not much was happening so she was much fresher when it came time for the birth and I prefered it just being me and OH most of the time. As I said it was a long labour so being stuck in the same room for hours would not have felt so comfortable but if it had been a quick labour she probably would not have used the room.


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## MandaAnda

My doula arrived about an hour before the birth, the first midwife about 15 minutes before, and the second midwife after. As everyone would've had dinner by that point, we offered tea. I think everyone was gone by 10pm.
My neighbours still haven't seen us in passing, and no one's said anything (my noises were low moans and moos).
Our shih tzu puppy was concerned but just came over to check on me. Everyone kept him away from me when labouring over my ball on the floor, and of course I was unreachable once in the pool.


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## belle254

I had two home births (neither with a pool) and the first was very contained, on a massive dust sheet and towels on the floor. The second, however, we got caught short upstairs and I gave birth on beige carpets with only a handful of inco pads to help soak it up! Needless to say the carpet cleaner got its money's worth...
Xx


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## MandaAnda

I've an oatmeal coloured carpet (you know, like mixed dark and pale browns?), and my waters broke all over them while I was leaning over my ball having a contraction. But my hubby and doula mopped it up and put an inco pad down after (a bit more did go a few contractions later). I can't see where it was and don't remember any fussing over it, so it must've cleaned up pretty easily. I didn't want to birth the placenta in the pool, so everyone put inco pads on the sofa for me and helped me from pool to sofa (one inco pad was wrapped around the cord). When shifting about to birth the placenta, I did get a bit of blood on the sofa, but it's leather so wiped right off. Had it been fabric, a dust sheet (cheap from B&Q) or shower curtain would've been a great idea (I'd had both on hand for my planned land birth with my first baby).


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## Lizzybee

Midwife says she needs to come and do a risk assessment on the house. Anyone else had this? What do they look for?


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## Smiler82

Yes that's standard. Just checking the layout of your house, access to water if having a pool, access for an ambulance in case you need to be transferred. Nothing to worry about x


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## Lizzybee

I cant help but worry, my living room is downstairs - this is where dogs live. Bathroom on 1st floor and bedroom on floor above that. I'm worried she will say no because of too many stairs etc! Eventhough she says they cant refuse!


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## Smiler82

Hmm yeah they can't refuse you completely, the can just make a recommendation. I'm sure they can't say no just because of the stairs. They will ask you to try going to the toilet during your labour and also they like to examine you on the bed as it is easier than the sofa, so just be aware you will have to go up and down. Best to do it in between contractions is my advice ;) Maybe it'd make life easier if you planned to give birth in the bedroom? That way the dogs can stay downstairs and makes no difference re the bathroom as you'd have to climb stairs wherever you were.


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## MandaAnda

Or you may not want vaginal examinations at all. I stipulated that WAY before the birth. I birthed in the pool in the front room. I then got out and settled on the sofa to cuddle and feed baby (for nearly two hours), and that's where I birthed the placenta and was checked for tears (none!). I wasn't on the bed for anything. My only toilet and bathroom are upstairs, so after the cord was cut and I'd had a drink, my doula and one midwife came upstairs with me in case I needed help, as I'd passed out after my first birth when I went for a shower, even though I didn't lose much blood at all (midwives also like you to do a wee before they go, which I did). I had a wee, my doula helped me have a quick shower and both helped me into my pyjamas. Then we all went back downstairs. 

They can advise all they like, and you can consider and decide whether to accept that advice or recommendation. But no one can tell you that you must or must not do anything in relation to your home, your pregnancy, your birth, your body, or your baby. You're the only one who does the allowing. (And if you're fine with the stairs, that's all that matters - they're actually good as you may find going up and down keeps labour going or that a stubborn placenta may shift after a walk up to the loo.)


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## belle254

Both of mine were home births, although I was in the unique position of having a mother who was a midwife! 
Both babies born in the same house, although my first was more straightforward. 5.5 hours long start to finish, no tears, a daughter born downstairs on the living room rug! Minimal clean up, as inco pads and an old rug were used.
My second was more complicated. Baby was bigger and back to back, so labour was more like 10 hours. After my waters broke it was insanely fast, about half an hour until birth, and I didn't have time to move downstairs (where my daughter was awake) with all the gas and air and equipment so ended up giving birth in the weirdest position (baby got stuck) and had my son in my new bedroom, on beige carpets :wacko: No tears, and he was 3lbs heavier than my first.
Not the best idea! The staining took weeks to get out! 

But I'd definitely recommend inco pads, or if you don't have access to them an old shower curtain or old rugs spread out everywhere, just invade something happens when you least expect it! x


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## Mrs Cupcake

my second baby was an unplanned homebirth so we didnt have anythign ready. the midwife wanted bin bags and we only had one! lol. we just put lots of old towels on the floor. i was examined on the bed. i gave birth on the bedroom floor holding onto the end of the bed. i have an en-suite so used that for going to the loo.

my dog just laid in the corridor outside the room and was fine. my mum snuck into the house to take him away and didnt even realise we were at home as she thought we had gone to the hospital to have the baby! lol.

im sure the dogs will be fine.

im not sure going up and down stairs will be easy in labour...


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## Lizzybee

Feeling loads more confident now, went to a meeting that put my mind at ease :)


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