Hi everyone!
I'm a home birthing mom (with midwives) who is pregnant with twins due in April, and my gut feeling is telling me that I need to be prepared for the possibility of an unassisted birth. UC isn't ever my Plan A, but something is telling me to be prepared for it anyways. I have near silent labors where the only reason I know I'm really in labor is that I check my cervix, and if I went by sensation alone I would not have called my midwife until about 5 minutes before my daughter was born. She was 10 lbs 2 oz, and that was about a 2 hour labor from when I thought I might want to call my midwife to when she was out. I actually thought it was probably a false alarm.
Twins are likely to be smaller than my 10 and 11 lb infants, and I'm confident that my body is going to grow good sized, healthy, and full term twins. My concern is that with uterine distention that profound from having what could be a 52cm fundal height at delivery, I may not be able to tell that I am contracting at all, and then I sneeze and whoops... why hello there, baby A! I think it will take less force to get a dinky little 7 or 8 lber (or 6 lbers!) to descend than my 10 and 11 lbers, so this could be pretty danged fast. I also am not sure that I'll be able to check my cervix, which has been the only reliable sign that I'm in "true" labor until about 5 minutes before crowning during most of my births.
My general vibe is that as long as both twins are vertex, term, and under 9 lbs (which I think it pretty danged likely! LOL!) that they really could come flying out inside of 45 minutes for both of them. These will be my 5th and 6th babies, and I've been right about births before, so even though UC is really not what I intentionally choose for my births, I feel like I absolutely need to get prepared for that possibility.
I've got my supply list together, and I have my own doppler to check in on my little people, and I'm not completely adverse to using placenta for PPH (almost completely adverse, but not 100% completely.) I feel like part of maintaining my confidence and feeling of autonomy is going to be feeling like I have enough planning on hand to handle whatever gets thrown at me, and then just embracing whatever birth my babies and I need at that moment.
So, what in addition to a regular birth kit with chux pads, chlorophyll, at least two umbilical cord clamps
, towels, blankets, etc would you want on hand? The more outlandish and "just in case" the better, because it will give me the lovely placebo effect feeling that if I have an unassisted birth, it will magically be ok because of that super special rabbit foot of epic lore.
Hit me with all you've got! And thank you in advance.
I'm a home birthing mom (with midwives) who is pregnant with twins due in April, and my gut feeling is telling me that I need to be prepared for the possibility of an unassisted birth. UC isn't ever my Plan A, but something is telling me to be prepared for it anyways. I have near silent labors where the only reason I know I'm really in labor is that I check my cervix, and if I went by sensation alone I would not have called my midwife until about 5 minutes before my daughter was born. She was 10 lbs 2 oz, and that was about a 2 hour labor from when I thought I might want to call my midwife to when she was out. I actually thought it was probably a false alarm.
Twins are likely to be smaller than my 10 and 11 lb infants, and I'm confident that my body is going to grow good sized, healthy, and full term twins. My concern is that with uterine distention that profound from having what could be a 52cm fundal height at delivery, I may not be able to tell that I am contracting at all, and then I sneeze and whoops... why hello there, baby A! I think it will take less force to get a dinky little 7 or 8 lber (or 6 lbers!) to descend than my 10 and 11 lbers, so this could be pretty danged fast. I also am not sure that I'll be able to check my cervix, which has been the only reliable sign that I'm in "true" labor until about 5 minutes before crowning during most of my births.
My general vibe is that as long as both twins are vertex, term, and under 9 lbs (which I think it pretty danged likely! LOL!) that they really could come flying out inside of 45 minutes for both of them. These will be my 5th and 6th babies, and I've been right about births before, so even though UC is really not what I intentionally choose for my births, I feel like I absolutely need to get prepared for that possibility.
I've got my supply list together, and I have my own doppler to check in on my little people, and I'm not completely adverse to using placenta for PPH (almost completely adverse, but not 100% completely.) I feel like part of maintaining my confidence and feeling of autonomy is going to be feeling like I have enough planning on hand to handle whatever gets thrown at me, and then just embracing whatever birth my babies and I need at that moment.
So, what in addition to a regular birth kit with chux pads, chlorophyll, at least two umbilical cord clamps
, towels, blankets, etc would you want on hand? The more outlandish and "just in case" the better, because it will give me the lovely placebo effect feeling that if I have an unassisted birth, it will magically be ok because of that super special rabbit foot of epic lore.Hit me with all you've got! And thank you in advance.
