Questions that have probably been asked 100 times!

[Bel]

My husband and I have made a decision this evening to UC for this, our 3rd baby(you might have read my husband's article in Mothering called The 7 Secrets of Being a Homebirth Dad. Now he can tell tell the secrets of being a UC dad!) . I just have a few worries/questions.

Should we buy a doppler? Not being professionals, would it be rendered useless when used by us?

Are there any resources that will guide me in what normal blood loss looks like and what is too much? Also, what a complete placenta looks like.

What about registering the birth (or whatever you call it here in the US. Myother 2 were born in the UK)? How do I get a birth certificate etc? Do most people get baby checked over soon after birth? If I go down to the hospital to make sure everything is fine, will they be likely to try and admit us and keep us there?

That's all I can think of right now. Thanks!

[Amatullah0]

Originally Posted by Bel

My husband and I have made a decision this evening to UC for this, our 3rd baby(you might have read my husband's article in Mothering called The 7 Secrets of Being a Homebirth Dad. Now he can tell tell the secrets of being a UC dad!) . I just have a few worries/questions.

Should we buy a doppler? Not being professionals, would it be rendered useless when used by us?

no idea, I would be tempted to, but at the same time, maybe I wouldn't be able to use it? then again, trusting your instincts is a HUGE component of UC

Originally Posted by Bel

Are there any resources that will guide me in what normal blood loss looks like and what is too much? Also, what a complete placenta looks like.

you could look at pics of placentas. as for blood loss, some people experiment with pouring cups of red liquid on chux pads, or in water another really good guideline to go by is "if you feel like you are going to faint, or if you DO faint, that means you lost too much blood, so either take herbs to prevent the blood loss, or, once you feel like you are dizzy, or just think you lost too much blood, head to a hospital or call a doc or mw

Originally Posted by Bel

What about registering the birth (or whatever you call it here in the US. Myother 2 were born in the UK)? How do I get a birth certificate etc?

in some places they require proof of pregnancy i think. i.e. doctors note, so they know you didn't steal the baby or something. you can go to that place where they have all the birth records.... the name escapes me.... and even if they have no idea what they're doing(maybe they never dealt with a UC before) then inform them that, yes YOU are filing the birth cert b/c there was no doc/mw at the birth

Originally Posted by Bel

Do most people get baby checked over soon after birth?

if you feel like you want to, or if your mommy senses are telling you you need to, then take him/her to the ped in a couple of days. you can wait a week or so(or longer if you want.) by all means, go to the hospital if theres an emergency, but you know that

Originally Posted by Bel

If I go down to the hospital to make sure everything is fine, will they be likely to try and admit us and keep us there?

this totally depends on the hospital, and the doctor, etc. if you bring the baby, chances are they will try to admit him. if you go by yourself and refuse to admit the baby(remember those nifty AMA papers?) and you're going because of a certain problem(huge tears you need/want stitches for, pp hemorrhage, etc) then you should be able to get those taken care of in emergency then be on your way. if theres nothing wrong with you or baby, but somehow you end up in the hospy anyhow, and don't want to be there, then by all means, go ahead and sign out AMA. but, depending on your state, this *might* get CPS called on you

are you UPing too? if so, keep good records, just in case you transfer. if not, you can always tell your MW or OB "oops, he came sooooo fast, but we didn't come in/call you because we were fine!"

[Tizzy]

Someone on the old UC board did a photographic experiment with blood loss, it was actually really fun to see just how awful 1/2 a cup looks and really put my mind at ease. I have no idea how to find it though!

[lilmamabrown]

maybe this will help

nak

We didn't have a doppler. He could hear the baby's heartbeat pretty easily just putting his head against my belly... the midwife i saw for prenatals told us how to measure heart rate. I also felt her moving through my whole labor so I never really got too concerned about it and we didn't check very often bc of that.

My husbands a combat veteran and so I left a lot of the measuring blood loss up to him and listening to how my body felt. I was SHOCKED at how clean the birth was... there was a little area of blood on the chux pad and we barely had to clean anything off the baby. I had my husband check the ammount of blood in the bowl I delivered my placenta in and then kept an eye on my pads... I leaked thru 3 then stopped. I did a lot of visualizing turning my blood flow off like a faucet and felt that helped. He had me eat a sandwhich and drink a glass of applejuice and a glass of orange juice before i laid down and went to sleep.

We had a back up family dr that we saw one time for proof of pregnancy. He wasn't an OB specifically but had attended home births in his younger days and would have done stitches at his office. I also got a prescription for cytotec (equivalent to pitocin but used rectally) to have on hand just in case my bleeding got out of control. I had pph with dd1 and that was my only real worry about the birth. we didn't inform the dr that we intended to uc, we just said we wanted the prescription bc our midwife didn't carry pitocin. I also had records from a midwife as well should I have needed to transfer.

After the birth I called the Vital Statistics office for my county and told them I'd had a homebirth. They sent me a packet to fill out asking all about the birth & baby's info and I mailed it back. They issued a birth certificate (got that in the mail too) and then I was able to go to the social security office. I didn't take my baby in to get checked until she was 2 weeks old... I would have done it sooner but I really wanted my husband to go and we weren't able to coordinate an appointment with him being off of work for that long. If I'd been worried about anything obviously I would have taken her sooner. PKU is required by state law here so I got that done when she was 3 1/2 wks old.

hope that helped.

[zoebird]

Should we buy a doppler? Not being professionals, would it be rendered useless when used by us?

i don't know why one would use one, so this is up to you. if you have a reason to want to use one, then go ahead and get one. i'm sure you can learn how to use it too.

i didn't see the need/use of one, and so we didn't have one.

Are there any resources that will guide me in what normal blood loss looks like and what is too much? Also, what a complete placenta looks like.


yes. check through the stickies in the forum for reading lists and resources.

What about registering the birth (or whatever you call it here in the US. Myother 2 were born in the UK)? How do I get a birth certificate etc?

this depends upon the state. i believe there is a sticky about what various states do.

Do most people get baby checked over soon after birth? If I go down to the hospital to make sure everything is fine, will they be likely to try and admit us and keep us there?

"most" doesn't really work when talking about UC. it's a very small population, and we are diverse. LOL

some of us do not take the baby to a doctor ever. and some of us go to the doctor that day or later in the week. it depends upon the person and what the baby's needs.

hospitals will try to admit you and the baby, and can do any number of fine or completely whacky things. it depends upon the hospital really. the most extreme is check you in, segregate you from the baby, and call child protective services. the least extreme is admit and check out the baby and release you and send you home.

i personally believe that the only reason to take a baby to the hospital soon after birth is if the baby is having problems. if the baby is not having problems, then you can easily make an appointment with the family doctor to have the baby checked out if you wish.

we opted to have him checked out by the family doctor at the first available appt 3 days later because he was born on a holiday weekend.

[basje]

Personally I'd skip the doppler. You'll be able to feel the baby moving inside you, and that's a decent amount of information. That said dopplers aren't super complicated, I'm sure you'd be able to figure it out with a little practice.

Blood loss, you're aiming for less than two cups of blood. If you tear, obviously there will be more blood, than if you didn't. In my birth she was born with the sac still intact, so when I broke the bag after she was out the amniotic fluid was everywhere and made things look more bloody than they were. Although hemorrhage is rare it is the most common complication women have. The majority of hemorrhage are slow leaks, so if you notice that you get really tired and want to go to sleep that's a sign to watch out for. I hemorrhaged, and I got really dizzy and tired after about three hours after the birth while waiting for the placenta. In my case my retained placenta didn't allow for my uterus to contract (even though it was nice and firm at the top). If you notice that your uterus feels more like jelly than poundcake, massaging it can help it firm up. A slow hemorrage isn't life threatening until the blood loss is significant, so treat it early at home and if that doesn't work a trip to the hospital.

When you deliver the placenta you can wash it in the sink to get the blood off and see pretty clearly how the bag fit's together. I'm happy to send you photos of my UC so you can see the blood loss for reference just pm me your e-mail address. Also you can google placenta's and get photos to check out.

I wouldn't go to the hospital directly after the birth unless you think something is wrong, like the child swallowed merconim or you can't keep their body temp up even with warm blankets and skin-to-skin. Otherwise, I would get some rest, try and nurse and follow up with a ped. My daughter went in the next morning and had her PKU. I would have also been comfortable waiting a few days. Then again, I took one look at that child once she was out, even before she started breathing and new she was healthy. I think the key is to follow your gut on this one.

I think that if you take your LO to the hospital they will definatly want to admit them. Understand where they are working from, having a UC is a "emergency medical situation" to them. Then again if you are choosing to UC purely to avoid the risks involved with hospital intervention during birth, and would feel most comfortable having a doctor check them out directly after, go have them admitted. My advice would be to call before you leave to let them know you're coming.

[*EarthMama*]

Originally Posted by Bel

Are there any resources that will guide me in what normal blood loss looks like and what is too much?

Postpartum Blood Loss