Homebirth in an apartment building?? - Page 2

[WinterBaby]

Legality-wise - homebirth is illegal nowhere. Only specific sorts of birth attendents are limited by law in various ways, various places. Therefore - birthing in your apartment = never illegal. Midwife... eh, leave her out of it

The cleaning thing - I definately did want extra sprucing up late in pregnancy. I spent the money to pay others for deep spring/fall style cleaning just to make myself happy, lol. It was those nesting hormones

[sunanthem]

I had my first homebirth in a small apartment building with thin walls. I didn't tell the landlord, or the mean neighbor across from us our plans. We were friends with the folks under us so they knew, and told us they heard everything. Everyone came by to congratulate us, -even the guy across from us who always had complaints for us! Everyone thought it was pretty neat. Our apartment was on the 3rd floor above a mom and pop pizza shop. The owners were so amazed I'd had a homebirth, and they sent me up a piece of cheesecake to congratulate me. I did make the place feel homey and I bought really beautiful candles which stayed lit during the entire birth.
I didn't care if anyone minded. I knew what I wanted; a home birth. And if anyone comes by to complain you just say there is a woman having a baby in there! Those words are magical and can make even the grumpiest neighbors smile!
I hope you have a beautiful birth just the way you want it.

[lghalacrity]

It's none of the landlord's business if you have your baby at home. Jut as it is none of their business when you have sex, or make dinner, or take a bath...

Birth is as natural an event as any of these things. And the level of involvement from anyone else is your choice - whether is be a mate, midwife, friend, neighbor, or landlord. And unless you want you landlord involved, don't let them be involved.

I had our last baby in a small 2 bdrm apt, and only the downstairs neighbor said they could hear me (I was loud!). They were awesome though, having moved here from India, and very supportive of our choices.

On the other hand, when our evil apt manager found out months later, she made a really big deal about it. Not so much 'how dare you have a baby in your apartment', more of the 'You could have died! Your baby could have died!' and so on. (I suppose I should mention that she had her own baby a few months later, and had a typical intervention-riddled hospital birth, including an emergency c-section.)

[veggiekicks]

I had a homebirth in our small apt. I was quite loud, especially through transition and pushing (which took about 3 hours) and no one heard me. My landlords knew about our plans and were actually quite excited that a baby would be born in their building. They even proudly tell new tenants about it. But, I suppose that they are not your average landlords. If you think your landlords might not be in favor, I'd leave out the homebirth detail in any conversation--at least until after the big day.

[Aka mommy]

Our birth will be at home in a our 2 bedroom apartment. We have not notified the neighbors nor the landlord and we dont dare to as Cali is such a 'protect your own butt state' they would most likely try to interfere too much. I intend on putting a note on the door stating that a women is laboring inside do not disturb. And if push comes to shove and anyone tries to interfere i will let them think we are heading to the hossy for the actual birth. Darn it, i progressed to quickly will be the phrase of the day. Hee hee!!!

[tmarina]

I gave birth in a duplex and I worried about the close proximity of my neighbors. I was lucky though, and just a few months before the birth a new family moved in and the mom had lived on The Farm in TN. It was a blessing to get neighbors who were comfortable with homebirth. I was very loud and they heard nothing.

I have heard of lots of stories of homebirth in an apartment.

I remember this issue coming up on an email list some time back and someone had heard of a landlord trying to slip a "no homebirth clause" into a lease. A pro-homebirth lawyer on the list went over all of the reasons that the landlord could not legally make such a stipulation.

[Pandora114]

I had my DD in a 2br apt with paper thin walls.

It was in a slum-like apartment so everyone was used to hearing yelling and screaming at all hours

So no one really cared.

[cathicog]

I had our first homebirth in a duplex. We had stupid upstairs nosy neighbors, who called Socialist services 2 days later. It was unfounded of course, since homebirth is legal anywhere you care to give birth, and they cannot enforce hospital birth..(they wouldn't have wanted to fight me on that one!)My next birth was unassisted. The UC was in an 8 apt building, and our neighbors couldnt' hear a thing, but I am very quiet, not making any noise, til the baby is almost born. The femaie downstairs made more noise with her boyfriend than I did in labor! LOL...anyway, birth on, and don't worry about it....let people think you are having fun with your partner...the sounds are the same, the atmosphere should be too! :LOL