How to Get Your House Ready for a Home Birth

[isras1]

I thought there was some helpful information in this article, its about preparing our homes for homebirth. With the main topics:
- how to make a birth bed
- stocking the refrigerator
- birthing foods

I do recall reading this information on the MDC homebirth preparation thread (I forget what its called) but I thought the making a birth bed was through and concise. Hope this helps someone else.

How to Get Your House Ready for a Home Birth


Does anyone have additional advice/tips that they want to share?

[pearl2]

As soon as I saw those double lines, I've been wondering this, myself! I will start forcing myself to "nest" and I am not even really that far along. I look around at my house now and get stressed out just thinking about it!

My plan is to totally get rid of all the clutter everywhere so I won't be stressing about that, and for the last month or so, really making sure I keep the areas where I might want to birth (bed, bathroom/shower for laboring, and kitchen floor) fairly clean.

I am not opposed to hiring a cleaning service toward the end, either!

[EMAID]

Wow, thanks! I came on here tonight looking for exactly this! I never would have thought about getting enough safety pins to pin all the sheets and stuff to the mattress. I AM planning to labor/birth mostly in bed (at least thats where I wanted to be for most of my previous two births), so sheets/liners wiggling around would have driven me crazy.

I'm now less than 6 weeks to my EDD, and thankfully the cleaning/organizing part is done. Now I just have to keep it that way! We are doing two vacations between now and my EDD, so I wanted it all done, and DH helped me this week.

Thanks again!

[PatioGardener]

nak

my advice is to get ready for your hb *before* your water breaks

seriously - assuming that you have until 40 weeks is not a plan i would repeat!

(it was a great birth - just a little more chaotic than i would have preferred!)

[goldenwillow]

My best advice is to de-clutter your home.
I felt much more at ease knowing everything was in it's place (for my comfort) and knowing I had nothing to do but focus on my baby. My partner, the love that he is, was kind to keep things in order during our birth. My midwife and her apprentice cleaned up everything before they left. It was fantastic. I remember laying on the bed with our baby and feeling so at peace.

[Jaimee]

I was freaking out a little about cleaning my house, especially my bathroom prior to my HB. But in the end, I didn't really do anything except make the bed with a shower curtain liner and double sheets. As it turns out, that was all I needed to do, too! And it was easily and quickly accomplished by my dh while I was laboring.

In general, I would say, be sure to do anything that helps make you feel more comfortable about the process, but also do not freak out if you go into labor and all the things you thought you needed to do aren't done. Good luck!

[laurabfig]

Thanks for the link to the article. I've been beginning to think about this topic. Lots of decluttering going on here...

[LaydieBugs]

I'd affirm early preparation. We were suddenly surprised to find that DS might come on the first possible day it was OK to birth at home and did a lot of rushing (and then waited for 4 more weeks, when he finally came on his due date).

One thing I was thankful for was that I had an old feather mattress I was about to throw out because I'd gotten a new one. I HATE synthetic bedding anyway because of the temperature, and I have sensitivities to chemicals in plastics. So Dad prepped the bed with the plastic sheeting, but we were also ready with the feather mattress, that we felt OK about getting bloody then throwing out. It also could have been rolled up in all different shapes and forms, or put on the floor, or whatever.

So I'd suggest being creative about just which bedding you don't mind staining, and trying to find natural fibers.

[LaydieBugs]

Also ... I wanted rubber ducks so we could be silly with the tub!

We didn't get ducks, but Dad put "pirate treasure" on the bottom of the tub. I admit it was a nice distraction to push the coins around on the bottom during labor.

[laerhk]

Originally Posted by LaydieBugs

We didn't get ducks, but Dad put "pirate treasure" on the bottom of the tub. I admit it was a nice distraction to push the coins around on the bottom during labor.

That's HILARIOUS!!! I'm so doing that... LOL

[goldenwillow]

Originally Posted by LaydieBugs

Also ... I wanted rubber ducks so we could be silly with the tub!

We didn't get ducks, but Dad put "pirate treasure" on the bottom of the tub. I admit it was a nice distraction to push the coins around on the bottom during labor.

That is fantastic! Would have been fun!

[mom2threenurslings]

One of the things I found to be most important as far as preparation went for my first homebirth was my Mother Blessing ceremony ... a time for me to center myself and concentrate on my baby and the upcoming birth. A part of that ceremony was releasing all fears associated not only with the birth, but with life with our newest baby. The mental and emotional preparation were even more important than preparing my birth space.

This time around (third homebirth), I'm decluttering and reorganizing the ENTIRE house. We're adding child #6 to the family (and are homeschoolers), so I need to have everything set so that life after birth goes smoothly. We're painting the dining room/kitchen a nice calming color (I'll most likely be birthing in a birth tub in our dining room as I have the previous 2 times) and making it more open by removing bigger furniture items (it's our homeschooling space as well) and replacing them with taller shelves that don't come out into the room as much.
I'll make up postpartum (frozen, soothing) pads ahead of time, will triple or quadruple make my bed like I did last time (waterproof mattress pad, bottom sheet, chux pads, bottom sheet, chux pads, bottom sheet, chux pads, bottom sheet...that way I can just take a layer off every time I need a change of sheets and not have to "make" the bed again for a while ), freeze some meals (although my friends will be bringing babymoon meals daily ), and make sure to set up the birth pool at around 39 weeks, even though I tend to go "late." I LOVE "testing" out the birth pool after a long day of child-wrangling . We put it in our bedroom during the day and in the dining room at night, so it's ready to go when I go into labor. My last labor was 4 hours long, so we want to be prepared!

[LadyJade]

Originally Posted by LaydieBugs

Also ... I wanted rubber ducks so we could be silly with the tub!

We didn't get ducks, but Dad put "pirate treasure" on the bottom of the tub. I admit it was a nice distraction to push the coins around on the bottom during labor.

Tubby toys! Brilliant! Hadn't even thought of that!

[foodmachine]

Thanks for article. I'm printing it and handing it to DH.

[kimmom]

My hope is our house will be BUILT in time
We are building a cob home and should be in by mid November .. This is baby number 5 but our first (hopefully) homebirth! Baby will arrive December just hope the home is ready, what an awesome way to bless our new home we are building as a family

[jdlivingsb]

Great post and article. I printed it and added to my HB file.

We are taking some of the advice here and decluttering. We are working on all areas of the house and in particular our garage. We are turning an area of it into a playroom for our girls.

[HeatherB]

Originally Posted by kimmom

My hope is our house will be BUILT in time
We are building a cob home and should be in by mid November .. This is baby number 5 but our first (hopefully) homebirth! Baby will arrive December just hope the home is ready, what an awesome way to bless our new home we are building as a family

Also hoping we have a home built in time. Not knowing (for sure) where I'll even be to give birth is not so much fun! I am definitely hoping that our new baby will come in our new home! Quite a wonderful way to "christen" it, if you will.

Keeping things orderly is something we'll be desperately working on all the way up until labor. Last pregnancy, I had major issues with energy level and couldn't get things done. It was awful to be in early labor and trying to get things clean enough that people who would be bringing us meals could come in! Thankfully my MW was awesome. She even helped! With our impending move, we've decluttered a TON, so we're well on our way to being ready. Of course, now we'll move and be in a sea of boxes when baby comes.

[2ID_Wife]

Is it crazy to plan on birthing in our extra/school room?
We have a futon in there and with the desk/chairs pushed in there is room for the pool. We have a table, built in book cases a great view, the futon and 1 desk in there. I could even move the desk to make more room and the table is a folding on that fits under the futon when we have company. It is a bedroom that we converted so they could be away from the main noise of the house to work but still it is on the 1st floor. it is also right next to the bathroom.

[HeatherB]

I think any room you feel comfortable in is a good one. I remember my half-brother's "birth room" was an extra bedroom in their house. And they had a big bedroom, too, so I'm not sure why they chose that, but, hey, do what makes you comfortable!

[Tique]

Bendy straws! The number one thing I wouldn't want to birth without. It's so nice having someone hold up a drink for you and you not have to work or think to drink. Everyone eles' advice about getting organized is a must too. The last thing YOU want to do it think during your labour. (Where are the towels....where are the sheets....where are the bendy straws ) Have everything labeled so someone else can find them.

Happy Birthing