what was your favorite thing about having your baby at home?

[Ssmmbb78]

hello! our baby is due nov 1 and we are planning a home birth. our first daughter (now 2 years old) was born in the hospital, and while it was a lovely birth, i'm very much looking forward to being at home this time. i would love to hear from those of you who have had home births before, about what your favorite memory (or memories) of having a homebirth were. i think that having the positive stories and experiences of others to think about as i get closer to the birth will really help me go into the birth with a sense of adventure and excitement, rather than with fear i am confident in my body's ability to give birth this time around, but at the same time i know now how challenging and unpredictable labor can be, and i think hearing some happy memories from other mamas will really help! thank you!

[LianneM]

Good for you!

I have a ton of them. I'll just post a couple

Number one is the pics of my DH holding them right after birth. You can see the house in the background, with my dd you can see the clock and realize it was minutes after birth. I love the look on his face and the peace of being at home

I loved being able to jump in (my own) shower knowing that my baby was right outside with her daddy and that no one was going to try to do anything to her that I didn't want. Peace, again.

I loved being able (and encouraged) to eat and drink during labor.

I loved snuggling up with my family in my own bed after giving birth. I also loved that my son was around in another room playing, but close enough to come running to see his brand new baby sister right after she was born.

[LiLStar]

-not being cut open (it was an hbac)
-going out to lunch and grocery shopping in early labor knowing I had a little secret, that my baby was coming RIGHT NOW
-going about my business until I couldn't go about my business any longer
-the birth atmosphere felt like it was more of a social event
-playing in the birth tub with my dd before she went to bed
-cuddling up with my dh and baby in MY bed after the birth, and watching dd's reaction when she woke up a couple hours later and got to come meet her brother for the first time, and tandem nurse, in MY bed!
-I'm queen for the day, and everything goes my way!
-I get to see the placenta, and no one thinks I'm a freak for wanting to
-baby never leaves my side for ANYTHING. Newborn exam is on me/next to me on the couch. He's weighed RIGHT next to me, not across the room.

[jaylily]

Neat. I hope I can add to this soon!

[momma_unlimited]

I like knowing that I really know everyone there. In a hospital, even if you know your ob or midwife, you have no idea in advance who your nurses will be or if their shift ends and new ones come. I need to feel comfortable with the energy of each person, and I feel very comfortable in my home with people I'm familiar with. I feel like a lab rat when people I don't know are walking in/out, feeling entitled to alter the atmosphere around me. or like I am their "job", or staring at my genitals!

It is so nice to have your own bathroom, too.

Most of all, I like knowing that my baby will be born right near where he/she was conceived. Full circle!

[*MamaJen*]

I guess I could split it into two categories -- things I was happy to avoid, and things I was happy to experience.
I wasn't thinking about it in the thick of labor, but afterwards I was so grateful my homebirth allowed me to avoid the slew of harmful interventions common in hospital birthing -- pitocin, continual fetal monitoring, directed pushing, getting steered into a C-section, and especially an episiotemy. God, the concept of an episiotemy freaks me out more than anything.
But at the time, the thing I appreciated most was the calm, gentle atmosphere. I was in my home. In the morning, in early labor, I was able to hang around the house and make some soup. I felt calm and centered and excited rather than fearful of what lay ahead. As labor geared up in the afternoon, I could take a shower, nap in my own bed, and do stretches on my rug. And in the night, in active labor, my house was so peaceful. I was laboring in the birth tub, the room was lit by the light from the fireplace, everyone was whispering, music was playing softly. Laboring for me was this intensely inward journey, very other-wordly and almost psychedelic. I didn't do hypnobabies or anything, but if you had hooked wires to my head I'm sure it would have shown I was in a state of hypnosis. Whenever someone talked to me, it yanked me out of that warm, fuzzy, pain free place and into this fully awake place where being in labor hurt. But because everyone respected my laboring space so much, I was able to stay in that good space and I had a really gentle birth. I don't think I would have been able to have the same experience in a bright hospital room, with nurses and orderlies talking loudly and banging in and out, and having to stay on guard to fend off bad hospital policies. I was able to relax because I trusted my midwife -- I trusted her to be a good guardian of my birth.
And after the birth, being able to relax on my own sofa nursing the baby, take a relaxing hot bath in my own tub and fall asleep in my own bed with my baby -- that was priceless.

[Katielady]

1) Not having another c-section.

2) Being in complete control of the birth and postpartum period. Not that one can control birth, but I mean I was the decision-maker, it was MY birth and OUR baby. I loved not feeling like outside forces were going to shape how things went, tell me what to do, or generally muck things up for everyone.

3) I loved that my midwife advised a 3-week "lying in" for me and the babe. We just lay around and nursed and recovered while everyone else took care of absolutely everything else. It was a magical time that I will forever hold in my memory like a delicate, shimmering ball of light.

[pampered_mom]

Being left alone - my midwife or her assistant coming in periodically to check FHTs, but leaving quickly thereafter. I loved that I didn't have to explain to either of them that I needed them to leave - that I felt like I was being watched and it made me very uncomfortable...they just knew.

Sitting in the stock tank/birth tub in *my* kitchen, my favorite room in the house with the sun coming through the patio door on an unseasonably warm winter's day. My midwife sitting at the kitchen table knitting a baby hat as if she had all the time in the world.

Being the only one who didn't really believe I was in labor right up until I hit transition. There were no cervical checks so I had no idea what was going on and labored in blissful ignorance. lol...that one still makes me chuckle to this day.

Not being told to push, when to push or how to push. Being able to do what felt right for me and feeling supported along the way. Getting to hold my baby first, being the one to discover that it was a girl first and doing so without being strapped down to an operating room table with the sterile drape between me and the baby. Not having to ask the doctor to please bring the baby back/hold it higher so that I can see.

Holding onto my daughter and not having her whisked off for someone else's convenience. My dh or I being the only one to hold the baby for a very long time.

Being left alone - not having what seems like a million nurses and doctors coming in and out of our room like a revolving door. Not having a nurse or doctor waltzing in for our daily visit *just* when we'd fallen asleep after being up for so long. Cuddling up in our bed, just dh, me and the baby that first night while ds hung out with my parents (and had a blast). In the following days...being able to spend time with dh, ds and dd in our own home. Knowing that in spite of all this my mw was only a phone call away and if she needed to head out, she would.

Not having to leave...not while in labor, not afterwards. Not having to worry about heading to the hospital too soon or having to sit in the car while in labor.

It really was a peaceful way to give birth and get to know dd. It certainly made it an easy decision to make this time around.

[MandyB]

Besides being able to sit, stand, push, say whatever I want to.....my absolute FAVORITE part of having my babies at home is that moment in the bed after the baby is born and we snuggle up together (DH, me, the kids and the new baby) and just admire him or her! This is SUCH a special moment, one that in a hospital, just isn't the same. I don't even know how to explain it, but it is the best!

My second favorite part about having my babies at home would be all the pampering I get from the midwives and DH! The midwives do a wonderful job of letting the rest of the family know that the only thing I'm supposed to be doing is resting, nursing and bonding with our baby for two weeks. When I had my first at the hospital, it was like once you're home, everyone expects you to be fine and dandy and everything back to normal routines!

[Belle]

Maybe this is just a small thing, but to have my own towels when I was in labor was very nice.

I spent most of my short labor on the toilet. It was my own small bathroom. Very private. Not a lot of people could be in there at once. And I only wanted people in there for the purpose of bringing me fruit or to refill my drink.

Nobody told me how or when I should be pushing. I was encouraged to listen to what my body was telling me.

No one took my baby away from me for a second.

I'm now sitting a couple feet from where my daughter was born. Not everyone can say that on a daily basis.

My daughter got to see her sister be born. And this is the best part. She doesn't have the fear of birth that I was raised with. I will not feed societies fears about birthing into them. They will both know that birthing doesn't have to be fearful and scary. Nearly every birthday of mine I got the joy of a recounting of my horror story of a birth from my mom. Not a nice thing to do to your daughters.

[OTMomma]

With my second child- the best part of my homebirth was being able to rock my new son in my own rocking chair later that afternoon. Oh- and the hot showers while I was in labor were great.

With my newest baby- the best part was that my older 2 kids came in the room just minutes after their new sister was born, and they were immediately in love with her. It was nearly midnight, so after the birth my 2 year old crawled up in bed with me and fell asleep while I nursed his new sister. It was just beautiful. I was also really happy to be in my own space with midwives who trusted my body to birth- there was a 12 hour wait between my water breaking and when contractions started- during that time I hung out with my husband and let him massage and pamper me (the older ones went to a sitter's until close to time for the birth)- it was a good day. A hospital would have been worried contractions hadn't started, but we just preped the house and waited- I rested and ate- it was good.

I am sure you will have wonderful memories from your homebirth.

[MsBlack]

Hmmm, let me think, what did I love about homebirth?

Everything. Everything, everything, there is not one thing I wished would be different.

I've had 5 wonderful hbs, followed by one hospital csec. It was a 'good csec' more or less, my own choice at the time (albeit a choice hobbled by lack of options)--and I was the only mama on the floor that week in a laid back smalltown Catholic hospital. They did not bother me over anything concerning my co-sleeping/AP ways (well, they tried for a few minutes "baby has to sleep in isolette" for instance, but I just said "we're fine, thanks" and that was that). Nobody did anything to me or baby without my permission, the nurses I met were simply wonderful to us.

And still, even without the surgery there is nothing about that experience that was anything like the sweetness and perfection of giving birth at home among family, being in charge of the birth myself, being helped exactly as I wished, and recovering at home without any intrusions, policies, procedures, or any other thing I didn't want.

I loved and still love everything about homebirth

[perditafoster]

Ds was born at 1:06 AM. Other than the mw cutting his cord and weighing him, no one touched him or held him or dressed him until 8 AM! that was seven solid hours of me holding him right after birth. He was filthy and my mom pleaded with me at 8 to let her at least wipe him off I hadn't cared a bit; he didn't even have on a diaper. I guess he never peed those first few hours, or if he did, I didn't notice.

With my dd's, both of them were whisked away after birth for hours and hours and hours and I didn't get to see or hold them for what felt like forever. Nothing was wrong with either of them, just hospital policy. DH was with them in the nursery, but he couldn't hold them. He would come back to the room and give me reports, and back he'd go to sit by their isolettes until they were released to me. With ds, my mom took him, wiped him off a bit, diapered him, and gave him back. A few hours later, I consented to let him be dressed while I showered. But that was my baby and no one took him from me! What a heavenly experience! Can't wait to do it again in a few weeks.

[femalephish]

nak.

being naked, being loud and being unashamed- I think I would have felt embarresed at a hospital.

STANDING to give birth- I felt like I had to stand- so I did.

discovering her gender myself it was a magical moment.


snuggling in bed with my baby and husband while my midwives did the dishes and started laundry. It was about 3-4 hours after the birth and I said, "I'm tired and would like to take a nap now, please leave." and they did.

The BEST prenatal and postnatal care I think anyone has ever had. smile. (I love my midwives)

SAYING "I DID IT!"

[OTMomma]

I left out one above- reaching down after my water birth with my ds and lifting him out of the water myself. I later got to tell everyone I "caught" my baby myself- that was WAY cool.

[Mama of 4 for God]

Comforts of Home

Just having everything that I wanted close by and not having to get into a car were the best parts.

Everything just came to us at our home . . . midwife, etc.

Own food, own clothes, own schedule. No one took baby away. No one questioned our plans (no vacs, no drugs, no rush, etc.) House was kept warm and low lights. Shower available whenever I wanted.

My own bed to fall into with newest member of the family when we were ready to rest and sleep.

[kerikadi]

Like the other posters it's hard to narrow it down. I had 2 hospital births and then 3 homebirths.

Not having anybody mess with me or insist on checking me during labor.

Nobody taking my baby.

Having a caregiver that asked if she could do things rather than assuming.

Getting in my own bed after having my babies in the bathtub.

The peace afterwards.

[Harmony96]

When baby is down low, but in FRONT of one's pubic bone, being encouraged to try a bunch of random positions to get the baby to move up and back and then down again, instead of jumping right to a C-section. (yep, that happened to me early this morning, lol. The homebirth part, not the C-section part.)

[quiverfull]

Like others have said, everything! A couple of odd things stick out to me though, in reflection (it was 3 years ago)...

I didn't have to stress or worry about when the right time was to leave for the hospital! One doesn't realize what a stress that puts on a laboring mom!

The fact that my dd did not even sit in her carseat for the first 9 days, obviously not having to leave the house until we were ready.

The different positions that my midwife and assts had me get in to get baby to drop (she was still -2 at 10cm). I think I would've ended up with a c/s had I been in a hospital. It took about 1/2 hour of maneuvering to get her to turn and drop. Had I been flat on my back... well, you all know.

All the attention I got. Does that sound narcisitic? I hope not. I loved getting the pampering, esp. because it was the hardest work I've ever done in my entire life.

The surreal-ness of the whole process.

The fact I got to really look at the placenta. Guess I'm weird (although I think someone else posted this too), but I always wanted to inspect what had sustained my baby for 9 months. At the hospital they practically hide it from you, like it's something nasty, and "why in the world would you like to see it????" I got a good education from my midwife that I really appreciated. (as a side note, for being 2 weeks overdue, my placenta only had one tiny calcification. The rest was very healthy).

I could go on and on. ITA on what everyone else has posted too!

I'm expecting another homebirth in Feb, and I so look forward to it (except I really need to prepare for the work that will be demanded from me... that's a little overwhelming right now).

Blessings on your birth!
Holly

[quiverfull]

Originally Posted by LiLStar

-the birth atmosphere felt like it was more of a social event
I get to see the placenta, and no one thinks I'm a freak for wanting to

Exactly how I felt about the social thing.


I'm so glad I'm not the only nerdy one! (regarding the placenta!)