Thinking of a Home Birth after watching The Business of Being Born

[BrandiCanucks]

It's not horrible. It has it's beautiful parts depending where you go, mostly up north (I've Greyhounded from Maple Ridge to Toronto), but it's nowhere near as breathtakingly beautiful as Vancouver and the rest of BC is. There's just absolutely no comparison. And the people in Vancouver I find much more polite than the people in and around Toronto. I live about an hour southwest of Toronto in Wayne Gretzky's hometown, Brantford. It's horrible here. I'd much rather live in my hometown about 45 minutes away than here, but until my kids are all legally independent, I'm stuck here. I don't mind too much though. They're very close with their dad, and we get along well, and moving would just complicate that relationship that they have. I don't want to take that away from my kids. My heart will never leave Vancouver though. I love it there.

 

[lovejoy]

Go for it, it's awesome.

My first labour was a quick birth in a birth centre. So with my second I was strongly advice to have a homebirth. I ended up having to deliever my own baby unassisted, because it was speedy my babygirl was in a hurry, midwives came just minutes after,lol. That aside it was awesome afterward,because I was in my own home, in my own bed with my baby next to my bed. I could get drinks and snacks from my own kitchen have as many or as little visitors as I wanted. It's nice in your house what you say goes.

My first labour was lovely, but I hated having to pack everything up and the cab ride home.

 

[BrandiCanucks]

See, another reason I was leaning towards a hospital birth at first was because when I had my daughter, I was so exhausted afterwards (with the midwife) that I couldn't even bare the thought of eating or drinking anything. I just wanted to sleep. So I cut her a deal to let me nap for a half hour to regain some energy, and then I'd eat something, lol.

If that happens again, and it might because I tend to stay up late and tend to go into labour about 2-3am, I figured I could have someone with my kids and come home after, whereas since I'm due in July, they'll be home and I might not get that opportunity to re-energize.

I can always make my mom stay with me after the birth at home and watch them while I rest though. Let her kick them outside into the pool with freezies so baby and I can get cleaned up and rest, lol

 

[Feronia]

If you can have someone there for you after the birth, it will be so much easier! Either a family member or a postpartum doula can help you clean, cook, and watch the baby/ your other children so you can get some rest. I had my husband and mom around after my home birth, but if I had been alone then I would have hired a postpartum doula without a doubt.

Anything you can tell me about Toronto, Hamilton, or Sudbury? I am applying to midwifery school and can't decide which Ontario school to select!

 

[BrandiCanucks]

All three pretty expensive to live in, Toronto being the most expensive. Toronto is great to visit, but not so great to live in. If you want affordable, you'll end up in crappy parts of the city laden with homelessness and drugs (I have lived in Toronto) and if you want to get away from that, you're looking at seriously expensive. Sudbury's pretty far from me and I've never been there so can't really have an opinion. Hamilton isn't bad. It's nice there and much more affordable than Toronto is. There is lots of access to education, malls, shopping, highways. I'd personally recommend Hamilton. I live about half an hour from Hamilton so I visit all the time. It's got access to a Children's Only hospital, which is amazing, excellent transportation system (that you don't wait hours for or are crowded on like in Toronto).

It's pricey there, but nothing like Toronto and there are many places throughout Hamilton that are gorgeous and affordable. There's even the small outskirts of Ancaster if you like a country feels and it's about 5-10 minutes from Hamilton.