Home Birthers & Hopefuls!

[wigglywoo]

I reckon so otherwise she's trying to get her oxytocin on and yapping to us isn't really the best thing to get that going LOL

Wiggly...you've heard it before but go over to spinningbabies and check out theyre advice on turning a posterior baby...if baby isnt posterior it can t do any harm and if they are they may shift.

Dewi was OP and I went into labour albeit 10 days over EDD...shame he never turned in labour. Stanley on the other hand turned OP when I was 9/10cm after being textbook good baby! He turned back though...MW even said he did an extra turn on the way out!

Have done an inversion today already and am kneeling, leaning over the sofa to get baby into a hammock. Hope something works to get things going!

 

[chuck]

You never know bump may be small because baby is lower then you thiink.

Get scrubbing the floor and ignore the fact you want to go into labour..make plans to do something nice...baby will ruin the plans for sure!

 

[lynnikins]

how do we get our mum and baby hospital bounty packs at a homebirth? do the MW's bring them or HV's ?

 

[cranberry987]

I did read that they were only for hospital births. They're hospital packs after all. Anything actually useful in em anyway? I'm all for free stuff but previous packs have been a bit of a let down, just adverts.

 

[lynnikins]

for memory there was a nappy , mini sudocream, breast pads, the usual adverts and some vouchers.

 

[chuck]

Hmmm sample sized tubs of sudocrem are always good, even if its just to keep in your handbag for cuts and grazes or in your makeup bag for spots!

When I had Dewi there were bottle of fabric conditioner in them and that was actually useful!

I pretended to be asleep when the bounty woman came around after having Stanley, I couldnt be arsed with her trying to sell me crap

 

[lynnikins]

oh and wipes, baby wash stuff and LAUNDRY TABLETS and samples of Comfort lol

i just checked the bounty site and apparently we just ask our MW or HV for them and they can get them

 

[lynnikins]

lol we used the bounty photo service with Nate which was nice to get pictures of him but we didnt bother with EJ lol

 

[Shiv]

I picked up my bounty pack when I went to get Cora weighed at 3 days old.

 

[Narie]

wiggly woo, hope your baby makes an appearance today.

I've been disappointed with the bounty packs so far this time also. 4 years ago when I was pregnant with our daughter there was a couple to dvd's with the stages of pregnancy and breastfeeding in there but nothing like that this time.

 

[urbanbumpkin]

Hi folks.

I was a homebirth hopeful last year, with my first baby Murdo. That didn't quite go to plan, I ended up in hospital having a c-section:

link to my birth story earlier in this thread

My little boy has just gone 17 months and I am due with my second in 2 weeks. I'm planning a HBAC and just thought I should pop in and say 'hello'.

So 'hello!"

I hope everyone else's home birth plans are going well.

 

[chuck]

Wow hey bumpkin...always a pleasure to see another planned HBAC!

I planned but transferred for blood loss in the end but got my VBAC!

Good luck with it mama...checkout the VBAC thread in my sig...I need some birth stories form BnB members to add!

Comento think of it I need to add mine LOL

 

[ljo1984]

RE: the bounty packs, i had a look on the website a couple of weeks ago as i was wondering the same thing and it says for HB to get them from your MW!! i'd be shocked if they actually have any ha ha! might ask HV if not. x

 

[urbanbumpkin]

I've been mooching about reading the VBAC thread, thanks chuck. Some of the links have been very helpful.

On bounty packs, I found it pretty useless. And you get marketed at a lot if you sign up as they sell your details on to other baby stuff retailers. I also dislike the way they pressure you into signing up by dangling the child benefit forms like a carrot. I won't be asking my HB MW for one and if I end up in hospital I'll be saying 'no thanks, I'll just download the Child Benefit forms' when the woman comes round.

 

[chuck]

Are you planning a water birth or dry land bumpkin?

 

[urbanbumpkin]

Water, chuck.

I've bought a La Bassine pool and the space is ready and cleared for it.

I'm perfectly prepared to end up wanting to get out for the actual birth, but I know what a help water is in labour from last time.

I'm also doing hypnobirthing, which was amazing last time. We have done a couple of refresher classes with the lady who taught us last time.

 

[chuck]

Sounds good...hubby wouldn't let me have a pool...boo.

I'm sure a pool would have kept me more upright and I wouldnt have needed to transfer.

..there's always a next time LOL

 

[pinkie77]

I got my bounty bag when I took Fi in for her hearing test. Load of rubbish, sudocreme sample and washing tablets and a load of paper that went straight in the recycling!

 

[cranberry987]

Had a GREAT appt. Summary is the consultant thinks im crackers but will agree to disagree and support me in making it all as safe as possible, but then the actual diabetic team said Im v likely to be totally fine so its then just normal hb issues which apply to anyone. woo!

Heres the full details, but have spoilered it as its a bit of an essay

Spoiler

Growth scan normal - body is measuring 3 days ahead so basically dead on and nothing to worry about. amniotic fluid levels normal but the report doesnt say what %. Fundal height perfect again too.

Then we had an appt with my consultant who had read the letter and went through all the points. Seemed I had raised all the relevant worries in there so I think she realised that we (or I) had done the research.

Re Induction she said that she was fine for us not to be induced as there is a lot of debate as to what the right time is, some say 36w some say 42w (and these are Drs) so she was happy to let that go.

She explained about 'tests of fetal wellbeing' ie doppler (not hb finding doppler, this measures the flow of blood through the placenta), nonstress test, heart trace and amniotic fluid level. She said that they dont do them as standard as theyre not a good predictor of how baby will be - its just a snapshot and things may change. But she would like me to have them in this situation, and Im fine with that, have always wanted them anyway (someone later on, forgot who, said its much more important to do kick count tho).

The main issue was monitoring of my sugars during labour as if theyre high then baby will go hypo so that just needs looking into and theyre going to get the paediatrician involved, but thats most likely just going to be a 'risks explained' letter put in notes.

So basically it went as I hoped, she explained all the risks in a balanced manner - didnt go on about random shit which could happen to anyone, and accepted that altho she thought we were crackers we had made a well informed decision.

Then I saw the diabetic nurse and all thats fine so that was normal.

Then they got the Head of Midwifery (who Id spoken to before,sara jayne something)up to talk to me and she was ace. Basically said youre going to plan a home birth anyway and we need to make sure its as safe as possible. Shes going to collate all the advice for my and babys monitoring and write a protocol for the community midwife so that if someone random turns up they know what to do. The consultant had said that she didnt think it was possible to monitor babys sugar at home as they use a machine in the hospital which is attached to a computer, but sara jayne said well we always used to use normal blood testing kits (like the one i have, but theyre not so accurate at lower levels) so might just need to give the levels a bit less slack - ie if they say baby needs to be over 2.6, we say fine,lets say it has to be over 2.8 or 3 or whatever. shes going to look into it tho.

Also saw the diabetic specialist midwife who explained that Im far more likely to have middling to low blood sugars as labour is basically like exercise for someone who has insulin resistance. Theyre now calling me IR rather than diabetic too so seems like their whole attitude has changed. Its like theyve taken a step back and looked at the whole situation rather than just little bits at once. So anyway good to monitor my levels obviously but she doesnt see them being likely to go high. Talked about expressing colostrum and all that too and Im just gonna have a play til 36w and will try manual pump to get things going, then will get as much colostrum as poss, I think she'd sit with me while I did it if I got massively stressed about it so I dont think I need to worry too much about that.

Will get some ready made formula in too but thats last resort as its so full of bulk that you need it in massive quantities and it doesnt raise blood sugar that well so it means baby is possibly still hypo but now full so wont breast feed.

Plan is to have 36w growth scan and will get syringes etc then for expressing. Then from 38w will have scans etc 3 times a week to check on baby - i was worried it would be daily so thats fine, im happy to do those. Have a letter in my notes from consultant now saying heres the plan, no need to explain things again unless the situation changes. So if some random Dr does start to go on about things Ill tell them to read the letter from their boss. I feel v calm about going for the scans now as I know that they wont have a go at me each time, I feel fine about hospitals as Im in them all the time for work so dont think itll necessarily scare my body into not labouring. Altho if everything is looking fine and baby is nice and wriggly I might *forget* a few appts.

So it was a rly good appt, was there for like 3 hrs. I think the fact that all my blood sugars, pressure,growth scans are perfect goes a long way to help my situation. If he was measuring huge I think they might have given me a bit more stick, but the letter seemed to really help things as I was able to quote official sounding people (NICE, RCOG) etc and show that I was aware of the issues.

 

[navywife86]

Great news cranberry