Considering a UC

[peetred]

I feel I had a "breakthrough" with my husband yesterday. I had wanted to discuss homebirth/unassisted birth with him for quite some time, and yesterday he was willing to discuss things. He shared his fears and apprehensions, and I was able to show him some information online and share with him some things that might help ease his mind about the possability of doing a UC. I assured him and we agreed that we would need to educate ourselves about possible complications and what to do/look for in certain situations.

In Nebraska, we really have not much choice but to birth unassisted if we want a homebirth. I've tried to get my name out to try and get contact with a direct entry midwife in the area with no luck. If there are any around here, they are usually pretty hush hush I hear, as many of them got ceise and desist letters many years ago for practicing. There are no regulations in Nebraska regarding independent midwives, but they have been accused of practising as "professionals" when in fact none of them claim to act as CNMs or licensed professionals.

Anyway... my husband's two biggest concerns seem to be breech and problems with the cord (wrapped around baby's neck, prolapse, etc.) We've read breifly that a normal breech presentation is no more dangerous than head down. We've also read that the cord around the neck is fairly common and easily slipped over baby's head during birth or birthed through. Also, that cord prolapse is fairly uncommon unless baby IS breech. Any thoughts?

My biggest fear is PPH and GBS (which I have carried with both previous boys), but have read alot about herbs and remedies to keep on hand for PPH as well as treatments to do before birth to prevent GBS in baby.

We are going to be taking Hypnobirthing classes and using visualization, relaxation techniques, relaxing christian music/hymns, and biblical scriptures/affirmations for this birth. I feel that because I have uneventful and uncomplicated pregnancies and births, that My husband and I will be more than capable of handling small situations here at home. We live blocks away from the hospital if not!

One more thing, lol. My husband is worried about having to do all the "work" as in cleanup and such. Any comments on this? I would love to have another support person there to help my husband and be more support for me/us, but I just don't know the "right" person yet, other than a doula that I have been in contact with. We havn't decided to hire her yet or not.

[zapzipzee]

Sounds like you know what you're talking about. I had not considered DH having to do all the clean up. We plan to get a birthing pool so hopefully everything will be "contained," and just need to be drained, cleaned, dried and stored. And of course probably a load of towels will need to be done, but it's no very hard to put them in the wash, add detergent and start it, then come back later and put in the dryer....

Are you planning to call family right away to come see the new baby? Maybe they could help him clean up? If not, and money isn't an issue, you could hire a cleaning service to come clean up. Technically it's a biohazard issue, so you might want to make sure they know they will need to send someone who is trained in that area.

Maybe someone else can comment on what all there is to clean up who has BTDT? Good Luck!

[zoebird]

i think you guys have a good working start at feeling confident in this, just keep going forward. the stickies have a lot of good resources for books, websites, etc, so consider those.

clean up is an interesting situation. in our case, there wasn't very much to do at all. i didn't bleed much. we had to wash a bath mat, our bed sheets, and some towels. it was one load of laundry, if that. there might have been a few drops of blood on the floor that he had to wipe up with a towel.

i had a number of bath mats (picked up for care of our elderly rabbit, but never used; i donated the used ones to the rabbit shelter, but kept the unused ones for some reason, got pregnant, and used them for the birth).

after the birth, we picked up those (with the blood), and DH put them in the wash tub i had sitting there (like an oversize bucket--kwim?). we then put down new ones so that we could sleep comfortably and not worry about the mattress. hawk had his mecomium release about 3 hrs into our sleep, and i got up and cleaned us up, and DH put those into the wash tub by the bed and put out new ones. then we got back into bed and slept.

in the morning, we woke up and got dressed, stripped the sheets off the bed, and DH did a load of wash (hot, with detergent, then hot with vinegar) and all the stains came out no trouble. he then put them in the dryer. when they came out, my mother had arrived, so she helped DH make the bed, and fold the towels and bath mats and put them away.

it really wasn't that much work. she also cleaned the bathroom (where i birthed the placenta), even though there wasn't any blood anywhere. she just did that to be nice.

so, that's what we did. no real mess for us.

[AutumnW]

When I used to assist a midwife I did the clean up and it's really not that big of a deal. To make it easier we would have two contractor trash bags opened during labor. One for trash and one for laundry. You can use chux pads/ puppy pee pads to catch the fluid and blood during the birth and then toss them. Put any sheets and towels used into the other bag and eventually wash them on cold with hydrogen peroxide to get any blood out.

[lilmamabrown]

hello fellow nebraskan :)

nak

I'm in Nebraska too and we just UC'd our dd2 in February. I know of a few midwives here but as you said they are well protected! If you PM me your info I can forward it on if you'd like. I wanted a UC to begin with but even getting my husband on board for a homebirth was a huge challenge. By 38 weeks he was all about UC if it felt right when the time came... I never told our midwife bc she was very unsupportive of it during my initial interview with her. I just played the ooops card. I felt ok doing that bc I really wasn't 100% sure until labor that I wouldn't need her... I just left it up to how I felt when it was time.

Breech was a big concern of mine as well bc there are no dr's in the state that will deliver breech vaginally. yea, yikes!

Here's a thread w/ more about breech... http://www.mothering.com/discussions...576&highlight=

I also saw a backup OB during pregnancy a couple times. He knew I was having a homebirth. I got a prescription for cytotec (which is equivalent to pitocin but used rectally) to have on hand in case of pph bc I had issues with that with dd1. We never had to use it but I felt like I really needed to have it to ease my mind.

I used hypnobabies and loved it. It really helped me focus my energy.

My husband was worried about clean up too. I bought two 8x8 plastic liners that I was going to use under a birth pool... but I never got one. I was shocked at how far from messy my birth was! I used 3 chux pads (only one for blood) and one towel to clean baby up with. The placenta went straight into the bowl with no mess and I went through a couple pads w initial bleeding but then it was ridiculously clean. When it was over we wrapped the whole thing up w the plastic liner and stuck it in a trash bag and that was that. That all depends on where you want to give birth though... a tub/pool sounds like it would be a little more work. Hydrogen peroxide will take blood right out of carpet or fabric if you have any mishaps. I took care of cleaning up the placenta the next day. What part of clean up is he most worried about?

As far as support people there are also some great post partum doulas around. Some need volunteer hours and will do it for no charge. I WISH I had hired one now.

I thought about having a support person during the birth but ended up deciding against it. There are some ways I wish my husband had been more supportive of me (he was listening to his ipod and playing around the internet until I started pushing bc he couldn't stand seeing me in pain) but I think he would've stayed on the sidelines too much if someone else was present. It might have been nice to have a girlfriend around in early labor when I was alone but I didn't have anyone supportive of UC. The choice for who to have there is so personal, you just have to trust your gut on that one.

you seem very organized with all your thoughts and concerns, it will all fall into place... good luck!

[amberskyfire]

The issues with cord prolapse are different depending on the situation.

Firstly, cord prolapse is nearly unheard of in term babies in mothers who go into labor naturally. The reason is because if baby is head-down and fully engaged (which it would be if you were laboring naturally rather than being induced) then the head blocks the way and the cord cannot prolapse. Cord prolapse is most common in births where the mothers are induced. The mother is not ready to give birth and baby is not properly engaged, so when the water breaks or is ruptured artificially, the cord prolapses.

Now, in a breech birth, cord prolapse is not really an added issue. A cord prolapse is a problem because if it prolapses, baby's head can press it between it and the pelvic bone, pinching off the blood and oxygen supply. In a breech birth, the head comes last, so you can kind of almost consider all breech births as being "prolapsed cords." In a breech, the cord will always come before the head. Therein lies the possibility of complication with a breech. The cord can sometimes lie along an area of the skull where it gets pinched between the head and the pelvic bone.

This doesn't mean that you can't attempt a breech birth, it just means that there is a slightly higher chance of cut blood and oxygen supply to the baby. It's still a safe way to give birth, your chances of something happening are just higher than head-first birth.

Almost always, a mother is perfectly able to push her baby out in a normal amount of time with no problems cutting off blood supply to baby. In a small number of cases, however, the mother may not be fully dilated and the baby's bottom and torso will pass through the cervix, but may trap the baby's head under the chin. IF this happens and IF the blood supply is pinching, you can possibly have a problem. This is rare, but not unheard of. In this situation, your partner should slide a finger in along baby's chest and try to hook the finger into the baby's mouth and pull down on the baby's lower jaw. This will pull the chin into the chest and baby may slide out. You can also use a small amount of force to pull down on the baby as you do this, but not too much. If there is no way you can get the head out, use the same finger to create an air passage to the baby's mouth by attempting to create a cavity in the side wall of the vagina. Call a paramedic immediately. Also, there is a great diagram of this in "Emergency Childbirth."

Now, if baby's head gets a little stuck and the cord is still pulsing and baby's heartbeat is fine, you don't need to panic. You can give yourself a few minutes to push baby's head out.

If you have a footling breech, you may not dilate completely before baby begins coming out. One way some mothers remedy this is to labor with their bottom in the air to ensure that their cervix can dilate and baby won't begin to slip out which can cause them to want to push. If you do this, you may choose to have someone check your dilation regularly to see where you are at. Doing these things may cause you to labor a lot slower, but it's safer for baby.

Then once they are ready to push, some moms push the baby out like mad. MOST UCers, however, don't do any of these things for any type of breech. They just do what comes naturally. I haven't heard of any of them having problems so far. Birth is safe, but some moms like to be more cautious in their births, so it's all up to you and what you want to do when the time comes.

Good luck with your UC! It took me a long time to get my husband to come around, too. In the end, he was really happy to have a home birth, not just because he could be with me and a part of the birth the whole time, but also because when I kicked him out of the room and wanted to be alone, he got to sit in the living room and watch his movies rather than sit in a waiting room and be anxious