Calling all Feb. Homebirthers

[Jlcampbellkidz]

Anyone planning a homebirth or repeat homebirth?

Planning our 2nd home water birth. Can't imagine ever going back after that last glorious experience. It was amazing. My DH and I caught and brought the baby up out of the water. My best friend took an amazing picture of the whole thing. Which totally off the sub. Anyone in the North Tx area should check her out. She is an amazing, reasonably priced Birth and NB photographer. Check out her site, www.flickr.com/photos/theoneandonlylynsey/
check out page 6 under the caption The home waterbirth of Krisalyn Elise Rose

Just trying to find a new midwife. I've contacted a few. my new insurance isn't so great with HB coverage but I refuse to go to the Hospital. I'll work out the cost later. It's so worth it.

[nolonger]

I'm planning my fourth homebirth and my first UC. I can't even imagine having a hospital birth.

I'm a bit nervous about the logistics of the UC because I'm a single mama but I do have an adult daughter so I'm sure we'll figure something out. She was at her brother's birth when she was 2 years and 9 months old and she was wonderful then.

[flapjack]

Yep. There is little short of blood or prematurity that would get me to birth in a hospital. All of mine (including my 24-week stillbirth) were born at home. I'm now living on the other side of the country and they aren't so hot on homebirths, so I may be having a deliberate "whoops, that was fast." I have great hopes for my new midwife though- haven't met her yet, but we spoke on the phone after I lost the twins and she sounded more gutted that I was I get the impression that she really likes doing homebirths.
I'm going to the doctors today to get the ball rolling on antenatal care, so we'll see how that goes.

[Jlcampbellkidz]

I will be praying for you flapjack. All of my losses have been really early, and were very hard emotionaly. I can't imagine getting to 12 weeks, having heard or seen the heartbeat and then have such a devastating blow.

Lots of Sticky vibes for you!

[bloominmamas]

I fully plan on having a homebirth after having 2 hospital births. Weirdly the first one had the most interventions and was the most empowering while the second had less and I was most traumatized. But the staff the second time were a bit brutal with me....Anyway...I just found out that I qualify for state assistance healthcare that would pay for a homebirth, whereas my supposed great insurance from my dh's work won't. So I am actually going to be able to afford it, yay!

[loraxc]

Maybe. I need to do some thinking on it.

[flapjack]

Laurie, we don't normally do first trimester scans over here- just one at 12 weeks and one at 20. The first I knew of the twins was when I started labouring again 24 hours after Brighid was born...
The good news is that I have a referral to a community midwife, my blood pressure is down on my last pregnancy, and as long as I'm still pregnant in two weeks time, my GP will refer me to the Early Pregnancy Unit for a scan. The bad news is that I forgot to lie about my dates, gave her my actual LMP (the NHS doesn't believe in newfangled ideas like fertility awareness) and so I now have a January due date Let's hope that the sonographer manages to be inaccurate in the right direction. Right now I feel very nurtured though.
Oh, and all of this is covered by the NHS, btw. We don't get nice details like beta tests and scans at every appointment, but my midwives have always been fantastic and the support post-birth is pretty great as well.

[sarahn4639]

I am so excited to be having this baby at home. Our first was a hospital birth. It was supposed to be with a MW but I was booted at 35 weeks so it was her back up OB. We were there a total of 1'15" before the birth, no interventions at all other than the monitoring, but it just wasn't what I want for myself. I'm a doula and have only attended hospital births, each one gets harder and harder to watch, I just want to scream "Give her her baby!" and "She said stop!" and "Be patient!" So we are having a HB so I don't have to worry about screaming all those things at my own birth. I meet our MW in a week. There is one here that takes insurance as an in network provider. The others are out of network. We just don't have the money for that right now so I really hope I like this one!

[loraxc]

Hey, so talk me into it, y'all!

This kid will definitely be a midwife-attended birth, but I haven't decided on birth center, homebirth, or even possible hospital midwife birth.

[flapjack]

What talking do you want? Do you want to be painted a rosy picture of that first night tucked up in bed just you, dh, blah and bean? Skye's story- aka how NOT to do a homebirth

[suzywan]

This sweetpea is my first and I plan on homebirthing him or her. Just praying that there's not a blizzard. Talking to my midwife next Friday, hopefully we can work out a game plan, so I can stop fretting about it

[StrawberryFields]

We are having another homebirth! Ds was attempted but we transported to the hospital. I am thrilled with the chance to do it again and actually make it this time. I am looking for a new midwife right now, just have to get my interview questions in order.

It is SO nice to be able to putter around your own home in labor. Suddenly need a drink of the grape-cherry juice you bought last week? It's in the fridge! Need to change into that soft T-shirt you love? It's in the drawer! T-shirt pissing you off and you want to switch to a sports bra? Your in luck, it's in your dresser. Tired of the bed and want to try leaning on the couch or laying on the floor or sitting on the stairs--everything you need is right there and you can do whatever you want.

I spent a lot of time kneeling on the floor with my head on the couch and some time laying on the kitchen floor as well. Not sure how the nurses would have felt about that action had I been in the hospital. I couldn't imagine staying in a bed during labor, I don't think I could have made it. Even walking the hospital halls trailing an IV seems too constricting.

[HoneyTree]

I'm considering another attempt at a homebirth. My first was pretty scary--the baby was descending crooked, and so wasn't putting pressure on all of my cervix, so one side didn't efface entirely and I was stuck at (I think) 7 cm, then my water broke and it was heavy meconium show, and I had my mom and sisters there, who, for all their splendid points just were not the bravest faces in such trying circumstances--so I ended up a hospital transfer.

I'm taking my time making the decision, making sure that I can learn how to prevent some of the things that didn't go as smoothly as I'd have liked, recognizing the role my own fear and stress level may have played in the outcome, all the while trying not to be hard on myself and to stay open to what the universe has in store.

But the idea of birthing my baby in my own sacred space, holding him or her close right away, showering in my own hot shower, snuggling in my own warm blanket, hearing the dogs snore at my feet, the whole family being able to fall asleep in bed together that night, ... that is a beautiful and compelling thought!

[DDNemo]

JUST found out I'm pregnant with my fist TODAY! But I have been planning on having a homebirth for the last year before even TTC.

Now that I have a positive test result, my mother, step mother, and friend are all trying to tell me how dangerous it is to have a baby at home. They are sooo worried about that small chance that something may go wrong that the MW can't handle, which might be avoided if you were in the hospital....

My friend dates a gyno, and he says ladies get transfered to hospital all the time for the pain and thinking that they are dying...

I'm a little scared about the intensity of the pain... I read the stories where ladies say they were not ready for that kind of pain... but they did get through it. I like the stories where woman feel relief from pushing, and kind of like the "ring of fire" in a weird sort of "i'm making progress" kind of way.
I REALLY don't want a hospital transfer due to pain.

I'm trying to stay postive and not let the doubt creep in. I KNOW things can go wrong at home... but that doesn't make the hospital safe.

[DDNemo]

Ok, so my first post was full of doubt and fear.

I know that I can do this. Women have been giving birth since the begining of time. I will trust my body and my MW. I will ask my family and friends to keep their doubt to themselves.

I will have my baby at home with my husband, all nice and cozy and right where we should be.

[nolonger]

Diana, I'm not fooling myself into thinking I remember the pain, because we don't; nature makes it that way on purpose; I remember little dribs and drabs of it, like being in labour with ds and realizing that I had forgotten what the pain was like with my dds even though the births weren't that far apart.

Buit I do remember that with my first birth, there was no way I was going to transfer because it was easier to deal with the pain of birthing than it would have been to deal with the pain of getting into a car and bump-bump-bumping down the road to a hospital.

I also remember that at some point during my second labor I realized that dealing with the pain of labor and birth was a necessary part of becoming a mother and would prepare me for other challenges further down the road. The phrase "If you could just buy them at the K-mart..." went through my mind and I embraced the pain as a good thing.

I've had to go hungry for dd and give up a lot of things that I loved and be stronger for her than I ever thought was possible, and I think there would have been less joy and more resentment if I had been going through those challenges with an adoptee or a C section baby or a medicated birth.

Are you familiar with Ina May Gaskin? She completely reframes the whole paradigm by refering to contractions as "rushes" instead of "pains". It may be a bit "hippy-dippy" for your tastes to compare birth with orgasm or LSD, but I can definitely see the parallels.

Do you have other experiences in your life with "good" pain, such as riding a bicycle in a marathon, working out hard at the gym and feeling it the next day, climbing a mountain, finally getting a chance to go horseback riding and knowing you're going to be sore in the morning but also knowing that it's worth it? If so, that's what the pain of birth is like.

Both my mother (an early pioneer of natural childbirth, although she did birth in hospitals) and myself wanted to do it again after our most recent births.

I never expected ds to be my last, but I do expect that little dd will be, so hopefully I can enjoy every step of this experience.

[Kimmiepie]

I don't know if I'm pregnant yet, but I'm pretty sure! I can't help but jump in.

I am planning (if I am pg) to have my first homebirth. My other 3 were hospital born. My insurance does not cover midwives so we are going to have to figure that out, but I'm really excited about the prospect of a homebirth. We shall see!!

[loraxc]

My hesitations about homebirth:

1) Afraid I'll need to transfer and be attended by some OB I don't know (I transferred from a birth center with DD, but my MW delivered)

2) Afraid of paying twice because of a transfer (also happened with DD)

3) Afraid of the teeny-tiny risks (this is the least of my worries, actually)

4) Afraid of other people hassling me

I just noticed how pain isn't on the list! Hey! And I had a horrendously painful back labor. Actually, although I did end up with an epi, that was only because the midwife talked me into it (in retrospect, I think she was worried about my exhaustion +posterior babe = the hospital demanding a section)

So, NOW talk me into it.

[azyre]

Definetely planning a homebirth I had a crappy hospital birth experience first time around and am choosing a care provider I mesh better with this time Just want a nice low key drama free relationship with a midwife so I can concentrate on my real job at hand!

[flapjack]

Diana, the most common reason for first-time homebirthing mums over here to transfer to hospital is because of the pain: 60%, in fact. Now what this actually tells you is that only 40% need to go because of a potential red flag about baby's health, like Theresa and Amanda's little boys (or mothers health.) Pain is such a subjective thing- your body will produce the endorphins to help you through this.
Besides, there's two kinds of pain: there is "my muscles are working harder than they've ever done before" pain, which will get the baby out. Then, there's "AAAOOOOOOOWWWWW" pain, like a total placental abruption in labour which, with total seriousness, feels like a limb in your stomach has just been amputated. (I'm good friends with someone who had a partial abruption.) That kind of pain will save your life, by making sure you know you need help now.