Birthing in the dark (silly question)

[Sheekara]

Nearly 30 weeks along and we are planning a home birth.

The thought occurred to me the other day that this baby could very possibly be born during daylight hours. For some reason I had always envisioned laboring and birthing at night, that way I could have all of my "mood" lights on.

I know it's a silly question, but have any of you birthed during the day and felt somewhat cheated out of your mood lighting?

[sapphire_chan]

My two images of birth are of "mood lighting" or of diffused sunlight. If we had a private yard, I'd consider going outdoors for a daylight birth.

Maybe you could put shades up on your windows?

[pazerific]

my dd was born at 11:50am--you don't get much more sunny than that! to be honest, i don't even remember the sun comming up that day. i was so far into laborland the lighting or time of day didn't even occur to me.

eta: ok, i take that back, i DO remember the sun comming up. i was totally rejuvinated by it, but i'm a day person.

[JuicyPakwan]

My first was born in the afternoon and we did put blankets in the window so I could rest better between contx. My other three were born sometime in the morning after laboring at night. I think there is something comforting and gentle about laboring in the dark/night.

[ralphie76]

I have the exact same vision- I can only imagine giving birth during the night with my mood lighting that I have planned. Our house is VERY bright during the day- tons of windows and all of our curtains and blinds let light in, which we love most of the year. But during the birth, I guess if I'm laboring a lot during daylight hours I'll spend a lot of time in the dark bathroom!

[Romana]

I have two rooms I could go to if I wanted to that would be pretty dark even in the daytime - the bedroom and the bathroom. However, what ended up being more important to me during labor was going with whatever lighting was natural at that moment. Though during transition for awhile I wanted the light on in between ctx and off during ctx. My dh had to man the light switch and turn it on and off every 90 sec or so. I had totally forgotten about that!

[doulanichole]

It's funny how different everyone's vision of birth is. In 3 of my 4 labors, I labored mostly during the day and LOVED it. I hated the one labor at night and birth in the am. I really enjoyed laboring in the day, with the natural light. My favorite birth started at about 7 am and he was born just after 3 pm - we had wonderful daylight all day and I can clearly remember sitting in my tub under the window with the light streaming in. I also really enjoy getting outside and walking in labor so daylight is helpful for that too. I am really hoping to have another birth like that one!

[happydoulamama]

Oh how I wish I would have planned for the unexpected day birth. Every piece of me understood that I would have a night birth. I was not prepared when I went into labor at 2:51am. I thought perhaps it meant I'd have a baby by 6am since I was having a night birth.

Well, night turned into day and I had my baby bright in the afternoon. And I was so inhibited by the light. I hated everyone looking at me.

Next time, I am making sure that we have huge thick blankets to put over the windows. I might even not invite anyone into the room with me. I don't know for sure, but I DO know I wish I would have been as wise as you and looked into this at 30 weeks. It's my only real regret about my birth.

[kerikadi]

I was a bit bummed that I didn't have my mood lighting and candles with labor/birth #3 but it didn't bother me during at all

With #4 it was 3am so the lighting would have been great but the labor was so fast we didn't get to light candles.

With #5 it was lovely. Labor started around midnight and baby was born at 6am. The house was dark and candles were lit