Homebirth tribe?? « Back to Group Discussions

[MoMofZandI]

I thought I would make a thread to see who is home birthing, talking about home birth, whats your plan?? what are you thinking on doing with the placenta??? and more =)

Who's in?

[Teles]

I'm not doing a home birth because it's my first pregnancy and I rent an apartment.

I'm sending the placenta to a local woman who will dehydrate it, grind it up and put in in capsules for me. It's going to be a little weird to send my placenta on a bus, but I'm curious to see if it'll be beneficial.

[MoMofZandI]

I'm encapsulating my placenta as well, everybody swears by it so I'm gonna go with it. I live in a apartment too and my youngest one was born here, we're trying to buy a house so if we continue to be blessed we'll be out of here before the little one's here. Otherwise he'll be born here.. We were worried about the neighbors but they didn't hear a thing...

[loveandgarbage]

Me! This will be my first homebirth. I have an appt with a midwife next week who I will most likely be using (she comes highly recommended from several friends). Not sure yet about a birthing tub. Last time I had no desire to be in water.

[loveandgarbage]

Oh and definitely encapsulating the placenta!

[GnomeyNewt]

This will be my 3rd homebirth with the same midwife. First on a bed, second was in water, and planning on water again this time. My first birth I did have the option of water, but I got uncomfortable at one point so she ended up being born on my bed! I didn't eat my whole placenta, but my DH did put it in my smoothie. I have no idea how much, because honestly it sounds gross and I didn't ask... but I did drink the smoothie he made because he believed it would be beneficial.

I'm pretty sure I won't do the pill thing for the placenta... I hope my DH does not see that people dehydrate them these days otherwise I know he will attempt this on his own! One or two smoothies is enough for me.... thank you very much!

I wanted to add, that he eventually buried the placentas by some trees on our property... I don't think we planted anything special near them. Would have been nice, but I guess my head was someplace else at the time!

[yummymummy2hannah]

Hello! I'm new on this board, but I am doing a home birth as well. I just decided on my midwife. We hope to have a home water birth. I also plan to encapsule the placenta too. :)
 

[Chloe'sMama]

We are having another homebirth. Dd1 was born in a hospital and dd2 was at home, but we have since moved and we cant have out same midwife. I am a little sad since we had such a great expirience with her.

My MIL was awesome and cut up my placebta into little pieces and wrapped and froze them. I used the bits for smooties for a few weeks. I dont know if it helped, but i felt great and healed so quickly. I am going to ask mil to do it again for me. It was not gross at all. I just made berry smooties and couldnt even tell.

[etsdtm99]

I am having a homebirth! my first 2 were born in the hospital (with pitocin and epidurals and the whole 9 yards)  and my 3rd was born at home on my bedroom floor .  I am planning to have a birth tub this time and have all my birth stuff set up in the (finished) basement ..  I couldn't find a place for a birth tub upstairs last time, water just didn't appeal to me, and i really wanted to birth in my bedroom, but since i ended up spending a big chunk of my labor in my tiny bath tub, i want a birth tub this time so i am preparing myself for the idea of birthing downstairs.. i think it will work out fine..  knowing more about what i'm getting into makes me a lot more comfortable with everything now..  the main downside will be coming up the stairs soon after birth but i think it'll be ok.   

Last time, my DH cut up and dehydrated my placenta - Then a week or so later, i ground it up and put it in capsules .. myself.  I couldn't bring myself to take them after all that work because of the smells involved with grinding it up in a crappy food processor..  now i have a much better food processor so i think i will do it again and it should be less messy.   if i don't end up getting a dehydrator and all of that, then i will just freeze the placenta and deal with it later ..  i just don't want to throw it out if i might need it for PPD or something.. 

[josie423]

All four of my babies were born at home. The last two were born in our big jacuzzi/whirlpool tub and hopefully this one will be as well! 

[sweetestday]

I've had four home births, and one home miscarriage so far. I really hope this one is a wonderful home birth as well. I don't like water, so it's the bed for me. I'm the odd one out. The only time we did anything with a placenta was when I gave one to my MW to use for teaching purposes for her EMT class. She ended up getting in trouble, because people were uncomfortable with seeing a real placenta at class. I don't think I'd want one of those people that are uncomfortable with a nice placenta to come rescue me in an emergency! ;)

[LindsayinTO]

I am planning a home birth and will bury the placenta underneath a tree in my yard, I think. Haven't quite thought that far ahead, but I do know I'll be birthing at home, providing all goes well. 

[Brambleberry]

My doctor (who delivered DD) is also a friend of our family and I feel really comfortable with her, but I am also considering a midwife instead.  I'm still really up in the air about it.  My doctor is actually willing to consider doing a home birth for me - she delivers Amish women at home sometimes - but I'm a little uncomfortable with the fact that it's not how she normally works and a midwife might have more training to deal with things that may come up at home that a doctor would be used to relying on equipment at the hospital for... does that make sense?  Anyone have any opinions on that?  

One of my "pros" for doing it at the hospital is that they have a really nice jacuzzi and I loved laboring in it.  They don't want you to actually deliver in it, but I don't like water enough to want to deliver in the water necessarily.  I can imagine that dealing with a pool in the house would be a big hassle and I'm not sure I'm up for it.  

I'm not sure about eating the placenta or not...  Maybe.  Last time we froze it and buried it under a tree, but we didn't get around to planting the tree until last fall - so DD got to participate in burying her own placenta!  Here's a pic:

[Gillmoro]

Me!! This will be my second homebirth.  I think I mentioned before that I am a homebirth midwife so kinda a no-brainer for me:-) I birthed in the water last time and plan to do the same this time.  The water was really helpful for me but I know not every woman finds it beneficial and also that every labor/birth are different so I will listen to what my body wants at the time. I enjoyed every part of my birth last time except the hemorrhage I had and the back labor, really hoping to avoid both this time.  I am also hoping to do the same thing I did last time where I labor with DH by myself and have my midwife come when I'm close to pushing.  It was a really nice bonding experience for us last time and so cute to hear DH tell the story of him fetching things for me all night, filling the tub and bailing out/adding new water to keep it the right temperature, listening to baby's hb with the doppler, and talking me out of going in for an epidural (yes even midwives get to that point in labor). It was a very romantic birth for us, I would be a lucky woman to get something similar this time around. 

[odinsmama]

I'll be at home again, the 2nd birth at home for me and 3rd birth.  

Buried the placenta last time but I'm looking into encapsulation this time, though DH is a little wigged out by it.

I think I'd enjoy laboring in the water but I don't trust the cleanliness of our water.  We use a rain catchment system (from the roof, through the gutters and into a tank outside) and it's not clean enough to drink.  Because we use this system, we also have a limited supply of water and it's possible that we just wouldn't have enough to do a pool full of it during that time of year.  I think I'll try to remember to get in a warm shower this time around, though.  

DH is a great support during labor and we both really like my midwife, who I just had a phone appointment with yesterday.  I talked with her about keeping track of my weight, blood pressure and doing the urine test strips that test for protein, sugar and a few other things at home so I don't have to pay for so many appointments with her.  We'll be scraping just to pay for the birth, so gotta keep the visits to a minimum.  

I'll have my mom here again to help with the kids (most likely to wake them up when it's time. I  had both my babies at 1:30am), to take pictures or video and whatever else.  She was a big help last time and she loved being a part of it.

[loveandgarbage]

Last time I had a VBAC at a hospital but I really, really wanted to have a homebirth. Unfortunately in IL where we were living at the time there was only one midwife who did HBACs and she would've cost us $8000 out of pocket. It ended up being a wonderful birth experience anyway... but when our doula said it was time to load into the car to go to the hospital I was like... maybe I'll just lock myself in the bathroom and do this myself! So I am very excited that I get to do this one at home, if everything goes right.

How many people is everyone planning to have attend their births? I'm still up in the air about having my kids there. Most of me wants them there but part of me thinks it might be too intense for them, or that I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the uh, task at hand. DS2 is pretty intense with his needs with me. So we might have my mom come and play it by ear. We're also debating having a doula. A friend of mine was going to be my doula but now she is moving! I have another friend I can ask but part of me thinks that with the midwife and her assistant there, that will be enough? A close friend of mine would love to be at the birth, and as much as I think that's cool, I think I might need to have as few people there as possible. Last time I just wanted to do it myself, without even DH around, so who knows!

[josie423]

Jean, I have my kids at the births and they absolutely love it. It isn't for everyone, but it works very well for us! They see every moment of labor and birth and they have learned sooo much. My oldest two still talk about their baby brother's birth.  Other than my kids it will be DH and the midwife.

[etsdtm99]

I am planning to go minimal on the people this time around..  I guess i did last time too -  it was DH, MIL, my midwife and her assistant and that seemed like a lot ..I didn't even want DH there until i was pushing ..  i'd like it to be the midwife, her assistant, DH and possibly my 6 yr old if she wants to be there..  though i'll probably have to have mil there for DD if we go that route..  i'd rather birth in the middle of the night though, then i could get away with just the midwife/assistant and DH .. 
 

[odinsmama]

I am okay with kids at the birth, so I let mine choose. When we were waiting for ds2 to arrive, and ds1 wanted to be there for the birth, I showed him a bunch of birth videos on YouTube, sometimes with the volume off if the mama was swearing a lot, and explained to him that it hurts and there will be some blood but mama will be okay.
I have a friend who apprenticed with a midwife and she said almost all babies who have older siblings wait to be born until the middle of the night. Not always the cae, of course.

I'll have my mom there to wrangle the kids and I know she'll do a load of laundry for me and make sure we're all fed. DH is such great support, I haven't ever felt the need for a doula. We read the Bradley books together and he fit into his role perfectly. Midwife and her assistant were practically invisible to me, in my own little world. And that's it. I'll have a backup helper in case my mom is sick, someone who will take charge of other peoples' needs, mainly the kids.

[etsdtm99]

Originally Posted by odinsmama 

I have a friend who apprenticed with a midwife and she said almost all babies who have older siblings wait to be born until the middle of the night. Not always the cae, of course.
 

My midwife told me that, and then my 3rd baby was born at 1pm .. smack in the middle of the day lol