Best Bed Protection?

[MegBoz]

Info provided by my MW:

Make bed w/ clean sheets, then place a plastic mattress cover, table cloth, or shower curtain on top and put another set of clean sheets (ones you don't mind disposing of)"

My Q is what is the best of those 3 options? I understand mattress covers can be great -easy & convenient - like a big, heavy, plastic bag that you'd buy for moving. But then the bed can be slippery.

Whereas if you get a table cloth with a plastic top and felt-like bottom, it's not as slippery. But then don't you have to go all the way around the bed with safety pins to secure it?

TIA!

[FiveLittleMonkeys]

Nope!  The felt keeps it from sliding around just fine!  I got one at the dollar store, and put a sheet on top that I was planning to toss soon anyway (the elastic was starting to go) and was planning to toss the whole mess.  But surprisingly, the birth was not as messy as I thought it would be, and my sweet midwives put everything in the washer for me and had it dried and folded before they ever left.

Hope you have a wonderful homebirth!

ETA:  So my opinion would be that the table cloth with flannel/felt backing is the best choice, if that wasn't clear.  Sorry!!

[Marissamom]

when we bought our couch, they threw in a mattress protector for free. it's basically a fitted sheet made if some type of plastic, so it stays put. we were planning on going with that option anyway, because we plan on using it after the birth. with DD I learned that cosleeping can be messy. I leaked milk, and her diaper leaked occasionally. 

[Meganlove]

We used a mattress protector and it worked great. We were about to get all the blood out with hydrogen just fine. 

[summermommy2004]

I actually just bought a 5 pack of painting drop cloths at Target and used one of those. It worked just fine and my MW didn't have an issue with it at all :)

[averlee]

We used a zippered vinyl mattress cover for the very bottom layer. I was glad, we ended up using it for about a year, it protected the bed from all the milk and diaper leaks and everything until it finally came apart. It was about $7 at target.  Then we put soft, old, dark sheets on, and then for the middle barrier we used a super cheap painting drop cloth. It was huge so it wrapped around & under the mattress, but it was thin like saran wrap. Then on top of that, we put some kinda ugly thrift-store sheets. Unfortunately, the plastic made the sheets very slippery, I wish I would have used some sheet clip garter things to hold the fitted sheet on. It came loose and I ended up delivering right on the saran wrap stuff, yuck.

[Stayathomemommy]

we just have a shower curtin, i usually have a couple and throw them down on the floor and bed and cover with sheets or towels.  i like to birth in the tub and not leave the bathroom till i've delivered placenta.  at that point i just throw down a chux pad to lay under me on the bed so in the end didnt need any of the protection.  always good to have though.  first homebirth was unassisted so clean up was 5 minutes.  husband balled everything up and threw it away.  this time the midwife said she will wash everything so i am not even buying goodwill sheets and towels, just using what i have.

[CBEmomma]

I didn't even do that for my birth. I bought a tarp for it, but then I decided I wasn't going to do that, eventhough we had just bought a new bed a few months prior to birth. My water ended up breaking in the middle of the night, but I went to the bathroom and that's when it happened, and I didn't give birth in bed, so wasn't a big deal. I did bring a lot of chux on my bed after the birth though for the first day, but after that I wore a pad.

[WorldlyDoulaMama]

At the dollar trees near us right now they have queen and king size plastic mattress covers. They are cheaply made of course, but I bought one hoping to use it for this birth. We'll put our new sheets on the bottom, the plastic cover over those and old sheets on top.

[Nicole730]

We used a shower curtain liner.  We made up the bed while I was in labor.  It was sheets - shower curtain - sheets.  After the birth someone did a load of laundry with the top sheets, towels and wash cloths.  Everything washed up stain free and we put the new shower curtain liner in our bathroom.