Really want a homebirth with #2, considering options...

[MillieJoan]

Hi!

My husband and I have recently agreed to start trying for our 2nd baby in August 2013. My DD is currently 10 months-old (today! ). She was a hospital birth and I really, really hated the experience, even though nothing "bad" happened to me. It was an uncomplicated labor, but I was in the waiting room while in active labor for 2 hrs before a room became available and by the time I got a room I was feeling so vulnerable and fed up with being looked at by strangers that I agreed to an epidural, which I really hadn't wanted going in.

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about homebirth for the 2nd time around. We're considering a move if my DH is able to get the job he's hoping for, in which case we'll be well-situated for a homebirth. However, there's a chance we'll still be in our current house if the job doesn't come through; it's very small, 714 sq ft and is an old mill worker's row house, so our neighbors are right there on either side of us. Has anyone had a home birth in similar conditions? (Apartment or row house, etc?) How did it go? I'm concerned about privacy, about neighbors being able to hear me...

 

[aliss]

I don't think they'll notice. The only downside is IF you end up getting transferred then yes, the neighbours all stare at you being led out on a stretcher But even then, I have no regrets. Go for it. My 1st was hospital birth, 2nd a home birth, and home birth (although I pushed in an ambulance) was an amazing experience compared to the 1st.

 

[madasa]

I had a slightly crappy birth first time round (episiotomy and forceps, not recommended!)

Second baby, lovely home waterbirth. Would do i 100x over if I could.

I live in a terraced house. I was reasonably calm and there was no noise for the neighbours to hear, really... I did make some odd mooing stages at one point, just before I got in the pool. But I'd been making sure we had noisy sex in the weeks leading up to the birth, so if they did hear us they probably thought it was more shenanigans of that sort

 

[MillieJoan]

But I'd been making sure we had noisy sex in the weeks leading up to the birth, so if they did hear us they probably thought it was more shenanigans of that sort

lol!! I'll have to keep that in mind

 

[fionar]

When I gave birth to my son, we lived in the bottom half of a duplex. Luckily the people living upstairs were kinda hippies, and I mentioned it to one of them while I was hanging laundry in the backyard. He thought it was cool and said to let us know if we needed anything. Two days after Evan was born, he stopped by for one thing or another and saw me sitting in the glider with the baby and was like "Wait, what? You had the baby already? Here?"

It was nowhere near as loud an experience as I'd worked it up to be in my head.