Home Birthers & Hopefuls!

[Jodie.82]

oh you will put him straight in full size cot? that was my other option, I thought teeny newborn might seem a bit lost in there?

would home birth still be ok if baby came early, 37-38 weeks? or would baby have to be checked in hospital then? I def dont want that!

 

[MandaAnda]

37 weeks is term, and most community midwives here are happy for home births to go ahead from then, although some insist on 38 weeks for some unknown reason. Plenty of babies born at 35 and 36 weeks at the hospital never even see SCBU, so I don't see why they can't relax the home birth side of things a bit more as well.

 

[moomin_troll]

oh you will put him straight in full size cot? that was my other option, I thought teeny newborn might seem a bit lost in there?

would home birth still be ok if baby came early, 37-38 weeks? or would baby have to be checked in hospital then? I def dont want that!

yes hes going into a cot bed, ive got him a special cusion that hold his sides and supports his head better then just being on the matress or ile swaddle him if he doesnt like the cusion. zane hates his moses basket.

and yes ive been told as long as im 37wks or over i get my homebirth, so he has to stay in till then. altho i sure he will keep me waiting

 

[Jodie.82]

oh you will put him straight in full size cot? that was my other option, I thought teeny newborn might seem a bit lost in there?

would home birth still be ok if baby came early, 37-38 weeks? or would baby have to be checked in hospital then? I def dont want that!

yes hes going into a cot bed, ive got him a special cusion that hold his sides and supports his head better then just being on the matress or ile swaddle him if he doesnt like the cusion. zane hates his moses basket.

and yes ive been told as long as im 37wks or over i get my homebirth, so he has to stay in till then. altho i sure he will keep me waiting

all good all round

 

[indigo_fairy]

Hey smokeyjoe is 2 days ahead of me, I wreckon it's her turn next! lol

I don't think I'll be long though, had all good signs, just the biggy I'm waiting for which is the mucus plug making an appearance. My MW has offered to bend the rules and offer me a sweep at 40wks, instead of their usual start of offering of 41wks, I'm not sure whether to take her up on it or not... Her aim is to give me the best chance of having my HB and not having to face the pressure once going over.

One day I think, it can't do any harm, the next I think I think about what happened before (one intervention leading to another).

What do you ladies think? My head isn't on straight anymore....

 

[chuck]

I doubt you'll need it hun being your second, you're unlikely to go that far over.

I thought I'd be late given Dewi was 10 days late - Stanley arrived smack bang on time!

 

[moomin_troll]

a sweep didnt do much for me when i had one with zane. altho it was nice to see that i was dilating and that she seemed really positive that i wouldnt be induced....she was wrong lol but it gave me hope.

its nice that ur mw is supporting u and ur hb and that she wants to try n help u along

 

[Bournefree]

I've been trying to find some hard evidence about the whole sweep thing for one of the other threads.. and I'm coming up with little about it other than anecdotes and NICE guidelines.

NICE say to offer a sweep to first time mums from 40 weeks and second or more from 41 - but there doesn't seem to be any evidence behind this?
You have to be a bit ready anyway.. humm it is all very interesting.
I have my own anecdote to tell, I had my baby almost 48hrs to the minute after my sweep, and they say do give it 48 hours. But who is to say that it wouldn't have just been the right time?!
I choose the sweep with my first because I was under alot of pressure to be induced.. which even though I was refusing, I also just wanted baby to come so the pressure didn't works it's little mits on me¬! To me at the time is was the much lesser of 2 evils.
This time without that pressure, I'm not going to even consider anything unitl 42 weeks (watch this space for a turn around if I get really fed up in 4 weeks! hahaha ;-)
XxX

 

[caro103]

i had a sweep at 40weeks as my bp was going up and it was an attempt to get me into labour before the hospital wanted to interfear. Howver really it made absolutley no affect other than to tell me i was 1cm dilated, ended up with another 2 sweeps before i actually went into labour. I do think the 3rd sweep was what actually started things off, but as i was 41weeks by then who's to say i wouldn't have gone in a day or two anyway. However by that point I was throughly fed up and wanted to meet my baby, plus was aware the time was ticking to have my home birth (for my own reasons i was going to agree to induction at +12 on the sunday, and alex was born 11.55pm on the wed beforehand). Do whatever you think is right for you and your baby x

 

[sam#3]

with #3 i had 5 sweeps in total between 40-42 weeks as well as several that i did myself... i dont know if the 5th one made a difference or not but the others certainly didnt - he came when he was good and ready!!!

 

[Mervs Mum]

I can see why home birthers are tempted to have sweeps (i certainly was) but theyre not shown to make any difference so really IMHO all you are doing is risking infection. Yes it's a gloved hand but it's still something as opposed to nothing. My friend had several sweeps and whe she finally went at 40+11 her waters broke and were foul smelling and baby was in a pickle and it was straight to EMCS now it may have been coincidence but I think multiple sweeps may have been a factor.

 

[indigo_fairy]

Thanks for all the advice girls, something is telling me I shouldn't rush in with the sweeps just because of whats been mentioned, like your body has to be ready, small risk of introducing infection etc...

Do you think it's worth at least having a VE to see how ready my cervix is and then trying some more natural ways instead? As the MW wouldn't be sweeping the membranes and just having a feel for softness/dilation there would be a much smaller chance of introducing infection wouldn't there?

I don't mind going to 41wks, but would like to avoid going much further after that if I can help it. Just because I'm already measuring quite big and thinking about the pressure on CS scar, not to mention the hassle I'll get (although I can just about cope with that).

I know there's little I can do really and baby will come when the time is right, I just want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to help my body iykwim? lol

 

[Mervs Mum]

I think you need to ask yourself what difference would that make to you? Knowing it's soft, X % effaced or even dilated? What are your thoughts on VEs in labour? Because to me it's irrelevant and especially if you don't want a sweep you just risked infection for no real reason. We know that cervical dilation alone isn't a good indicator of how long it will be before you are fully or your baby is born so why is it helpful before you're even in labour?! I think you either have a sweep or you don't really because what your cervix is doing won't tell you if you will go into spontaneous labour 10 mins or 10 days later.

 

[SmokyJoe78]

I had quite a few sweeps last time and just found them really disheartening, as my cervix was 'unfavourable', even at 42+ So this time I'm not having any

I guess they are good if you're ready anyway - I wasn't with DS and I think knowing that my cervix wasn't ready didn't help me - I was extremely stressed out and down about the whole thing Which then meant I didn't go into labour. This time I'm keeping calm about the whole thing.... or at least trying to

Anyway..... Indigo..... if my previous record is anything to go by I'll still be here at 42+ So go ahead! Lol

 

[PeanutBean]

:wave: I've been on holiday with almost no signal most of the time so just caught up now.

over your hospital notes ladies, and Makes me want to see mine from Byron though I also like the idea of having put that particular birth baby to bed. I was supposed to have time to look through them before the debrief with the SOM but she rearranged the date and took a bunch of time off it so there wasn't time for me to even see the file let alone read anything.

In the pain relief front, in my first labour I used gas but hated it tbh and also chucked it away for pushing. It was just a hindrance. I hated the way it clouded my mind and also that awful claggy feeling in the mouth it gives, like my voice was coming from somewhere else. I didn't ask for any to even be brought for Indigo's birth. The MW did bring some (remember she turned up just over an hour before the birth) and kept offering it but I just refused as I knew it would make me feel worse. I finally had a bit for the catheter after my placenta didn't come and it was every bit as useless and vile as I remembered! I had pethidine with Byron and felt it just slowed everything down after it had begun to pick up. I didn't bother getting a prescription this time. I could only envisage a use if I had a hugely long labour and got exhausted. The 18 or so hours before it really kicked off were just plenty manageable with hypno so I didn't need it. The MW could've got it from the hospital if I had wanted it. Comparing my two births the first was entirely destroyed because of my pain relief choices. The second still scares me to remember how intense it was but I know the no pain relief was absolutely the right choice for me. By the time it was intense enough to maybe want any it was nearly all over. I never had an "I need an epidural" moment though I did think this is when other mums might shout for one! I had the "I can't do it" moment instead before I lost control entirely and my body took over.

So are we nearly due some more homebirth babies? It does feel like ages.

On a side not, Indigo I have always had to double take when people talk to you as you have my daughter's name. We chose it when I was pregnant with Byron (team yellow) so it's felt like her name for a long time.

 

[SmokyJoe78]

Hi PB - nice to have you back

 

[indigo_fairy]

lol yes I've used it for my usernames for the last 10 years or so! I love the name, beautiful name for your little girl

Thanks again for the input I think I will have to read up a bit and decide what to do, I definitely want to stay more relaxed this time, and with any luck won't have to worry about deciding if baby turns up soon! I had a sweep at 10days last time and went into labour about 5 hours later.

Smokeyjoe, what signs have you got going on?

 

[Mervs Mum]

Ditto that!! Hey PB

 

[PeanutBean]

Aw, you ladies have made me feel all fuzzy inside.

I meant to say about the sweep too. Perils of replying whilst trying to settle a screaming baby in my arms. I wouldn't have had one because of the infection risk MM mentioned. As I had had a GBS positive swab it was a good excuse to keep invasive things at a minimum. Had I got to 42 weeks I might have thought it through again but I wanted to wait until she was ready, opting for monitoring as a first preference.

 

[SmokyJoe78]

Indigo - had a bit of an upset tummy last 2 days and also getting crampy/period pain type feelings on and off for the last week, bit of a sore lower back on and off. I keep thinking something is going to start and then it doesn't. And as I didn't go into labour naturally last time, I'm really not sure what to expect. Haven't lost any plug yet and when I've been inserting my Starflower capsules, it seems a long way to put them in without bumping into my cervix!

Have you had anything going on yet? I'm trying my best to keep the getting fed-up feelings at bay, but it's hard