Plan to labor at home but have questions

[AmandainMexico]

I'm not really sure where to start here. My biggest question is how do we know its time to go. I have learned about the cervical checking and my husband and I are both able to check mine. My situation is that I live in Mexico and we are using the public hospital this time around. This is my third baby and I'm pretty sure I will know but I want my husband and I to be as ready and educated as possible. At the public hospital here once I go in I will be put in a general labor/delivery room with 5-6 other women who are also in labor. I will not be allowed to have anyone in there with me and from what I hear I wont get attention till my babies head is on its way out. This will be my first completely drug fee delivery. Basically I want to stay in the comforts of my home and surrounded by my husband and my mom until I have to be put by my self. My first labor was no more than 8 hours and the second was only 6. I have a 20 min drive to the hospital at peak hours in the day. I'm looking for any suggestions that will help my husband and myself to feel safe and secure that we will know when to go.

[cathicog]

Generally, if you wait til the contractions(waves, rushes) are 2-3 min apart, lasting 60-90 seconds long, and you can't talk thru them, then you are about 6-7 cm, usually.If you wait til they are one to two min apart, you will probably have the baby before you get to the hospital(which, thinking about what you said, might not be a bad idea). If you are feeling pressure and the urge to push before you get there, you can hum thru the ctx. That can slow them down a little, and buy you some time. I hope you walk in the door pushing! Or have the baby in the parking lot. That happened to us once, at the birth center... But by planning for that time interval, its a good chance you will get there and be almost complete when you do. Let us know how it goes, we are curious! Hugs and happy birthing. You weren't able to find a partera/madrona there? (midwife)....there's a paper I hand out to couples(I didn't write it) that tells what to do if you have the baby accidently at home. PM me and I will send it to you...

[dogmom327]

I had a midwife (CNM) tell me once about the hospital she trained out where there was no anesthesiologist available for labor and delivery. With no options for pain relief, women were strongly encouraged to labor at home so the older midwife who did most of the baby catching would tell the partners to bring the mother in when she started taking her clothes off as at that point they'd generally be 8 or so centimeters.

I'm sure that doesn't work 100% but it might be a good gauge. I supported my sister though the last 13 hours of her 46 hour labor and she never developed any kind of pattern to her contractions and they weren't particularly close together until right before she started pushing. It was weird.

Any chance you could have a home birth? The situation with the hospital sounds miserable.

[Helene_Rose]

Only you can answer for yourself when you feel comfortable going to the hospital. Labor is unpredictable as you know! It sounds like you have had normally short labors. Make sure that you know you are definitely in labor and are at least 4-5 cm dilated. Be prepared to know what to do just in case you have the baby before you arrive! A doula can help you determine whether you are ready of not. Do you have a doula? Enjoy!

Helene

[phathui5]

Are there any area midwives you could hire to attend your birth at home?

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

Hey their, its sunshine!
So glad to see you on here.
Keep posting questions....this is a awesome site for information.
You could always to a lotus birth.......check that out on here. I think I may try that with our next one!

[MegBoz]

Originally Posted by AmandainMexico

I will not be allowed to have anyone in there with me and from what I hear I wont get attention till my babies head is on its way out.

Ok, sorry, this isn't an answer to your question, but I am really shocked by this! Um, if they don't monitor you (like fetal heart tones, your blood pressure, etc.) why even go? Really what is the point of even going to the hospital?

Obviously intermittent monitoring in 1st stage labor is ideal for healthy pregnancies, but it sounds like they don't monitor you in 1st stage at all! And if they don't show up until the baby is crowning, then they aren't monitoring you through stage 2 either - which is when monitoring is even more important.

So, they don't monitor you & force you away from your partner & any other support person. Why go there?

[EllyMayMomma]

Originally Posted by MegBoz

Ok, sorry, this isn't an answer to your question, but I am really shocked by this! Um, if they don't monitor you (like fetal heart tones, your blood pressure, etc.) why even go? Really what is the point of even going to the hospital?

Obviously intermittent monitoring in 1st stage labor is ideal for healthy pregnancies, but it sounds like they don't monitor you in 1st stage at all! And if they don't show up until the baby is crowning, then they aren't monitoring you through stage 2 either - which is when monitoring is even more important.

So, they don't monitor you & force you away from your partner & any other support person. Why go there?

I agree. If you have have already had a vag delivery and will get no help or monitoring there, why go in?

I would check out the UC forum here and start researching that. For me, labor and delivery in that way would be so distracting and distressing, delivery at home would become priority, especially since you will have the support of both DH and your mom. If you are going to do it all on your own, might as well have the pleasure of you or your DH or mom catching the baby!

Sorry to not have any other suggestions.

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

Birthing at home allows you to be in a natural position for your baby to come out....thus slim to non tearing. I had a 10+2 baby with no tearing. When were in laying down with our feet up pushing...that is when tearing occurs. You would do awesome with a home birth.

[AmandainMexico]

cathicog I would love to have the hand out but I dont know what you mean by PM you. lol Im totally new to the site and had originally put this thread in the wrong place. I need a click here then there type of idea on how to get that hand out from you.
Thanks and I also hope I walk in pushing thats the goal. I might ask around about a midwife but I doubt it here, also if there is they will be expensive.

[AmandainMexico]

thanks for the responses

I actually have been reading a lot about the home deliveries and they sound a lot better to me than being in a room with a bunch of screaming women. The one thing I would have at the hospital is a check up for the baby afterward and I think that's about all the difference. I am a nurse but never trust my own judgment with my kids and I think this is natural. I'm also not sure what my husband will think of the idea, he really has a hard time with blood and such, and my mom almost pased out when I had my first in the hospital (shes had 6kids and witnessed 3 grandkids born, lol). I think my mom was sick due to needing to eat but I wont be in the position to remind her to eat if you know what I mean. So unless I can find a dula or midwife of some kind around here (which I'm doubtful of) I'm afraid doing it all at home isn't going to work out. You see I'm the one in my family who "keeps it all together" during crisis so I'm not sure how well my husband will even do with the laboring part. With Alana he was in Mexico and with Joslin they kept him in a different room during the hardest part so I still have no idea how he will do. Normally if one of the girls are in pain or sick he looses it completely, Seriously I have had to send him outside when Alana was throwing up before.
I still plan to ask him what he thinks of the home birthing thing, and I plan to look around to see if there is a midwife or something around here we can afford. I know that will make or break the decision. I suppose I should see what my mom says also, but then again her being here is still up in the air, Im not gonna bank on it till she has a passport in hand and has purchased her tickets, both of which have yet to happen.
Thanks again all, Ill for sure keep looking things up on this site and asking questions if I have them.