Hi ladies,
I hope you dont mind me asking a few (very premature) questions. Im not yet pregnant but i am thinking of baby 3 already. I would really love to experience a home-birth for our next baby but have a few questions whizzing around my head.
Would you recommend home birth as opposed to a hospital birth? My 2 dd's were born in hospital and were both quick labours. However both had slight meconium present and we had to stay overnight. I felt staying over night stressed me out.
With home birth at what point does the midwife come to you?
Does the baby get name tags?
Sorry for all the questions.
You should birth wherever you feel most comfortable and relaxed. For me, that was at home. I had a home birth with my first 2 years ago and it was wonderful. I couldn't have imagined having her in hospital (I did have to go into hospital with her later on, not related to birth and it was AWFUL! No one listened to me, staff were all too busy, we literally just sat around for 5 days for no reason while no one did anything until I discharged us). I loved that I could be relaxed and more comfortable at home. Had everything I needed right there, could eat my own food, etc. I didn't have to ride in the car or go out in the cold or ice. And my husband didn't have to leave after. He went downstairs and made me dinner while I relaxed in bed, and we slept in our own bed together that night. I also think it's one of the reasons why I had a fairly easy, mostly pain-free birth. I was just comfortable being there and for that reason, my labour was generally pretty manageable, even though I didn't use any pain relief other than a TENS. We plan to have another in a year or so and I definitely plan to have another home birth assuming baby and I are healthy.
As for when the midwife comes, she comes whenever you call and say you need her. I imagine it's kind of like how you know when you need to go into hospital if you're having a hospital birth. You probably would hang out at home for a bit. When you feel like things are picking up, you head in, taking into account the travel time, etc. It's the same with a home birth but the other way around. There will be a bit of a lag of an hour or two probably between when you can and when someone gets to you, depending on who is on call, if it's the middle of a shift change, how far you are from hospital, etc. So you just call when you think you'll need them soon. I called when I felt I was about an hour or two away from needing support (and maybe gas and air). It turned out it was just the end of a shift, so I asked them to wait until the new shift came on so they could send out a specific midwife I liked who would then stay with me the whole time. I called at 6:30am, midwives arrived at 9:30am after the start of their shift. Shortly after this, they checked and I was fully dilated and was starting to push. This was perfect for me and I was happiest being on my own, so I wouldn't have wanted to call any sooner. They tend to want you to wait until you're in established labour (contractions every 5 minutes, lasting about a minute or so), roughly speaking, before you call, just because they don't want to come out and find you're having a contraction every 10 minutes and not really in active labour, as they are busy and they want to attend the ladies who need them the most first. But I think you'll know.
No, you don't get the little plastic bracelet as you aren't admitted to the ward. No big deal though. You can make a momento yourself if you're really keen to have something to keep. The positive memories and time to bond as a family with your other kids and your partner are the best bit anyway.
