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Home Birth?

2K views 38 replies 22 participants last post by  MommaLove 
#1 ·
I was just wondering if any of you had a home birth? We were planning a home birth for this one - my second pregnancy - but when we found out it was twins, some people said it was too risky. I am still inclined to try for a home birth, there is a midwife in town here with a lot of twin and breech experience, but am still a little worried. I would love some experience/advise on this one.
 
#5 ·
I had a home waterbirth with my twins and it went very well. I never would have imagined giving birth to twins at home, but once I found out I was carrying twins, and did alot of research, I realized the safest place for us would be at home. As long as you are healthy, carry full-term and don't risk out due to health issues, a homebirth is a very safe option. It is very important that you are meticulous with your nutrition-lot's of greens, protein and water. Just eat, eat, eat! I carried my twins to 40 weeks 1 day and I believe it had alot to do with my nutrition and positive attitude. Just talk to your body and your babies and speak positively. Nothing is guaranteed in birth, but you defenitely do many things to increase your odds of a successful homebirth. There are tons of mamas here who had successful homebirths. Spend time reading their stories-that is what I did and I believe it is what gave me the confidence to do it, too.
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by MollyKenzie View Post
I was just wondering if any of you had a home birth? We were planning a home birth for this one - my second pregnancy - but when we found out it was twins, some people said it was too risky. I am still inclined to try for a home birth, there is a midwife in town here with a lot of twin and breech experience, but am still a little worried. I would love some experience/advise on this one.
Trust your instincts.

I had twins at home. Both were breech. You have some excellent midwives in Oregon, btw.
 
#10 ·
Hi ladies,

I am 20 weeks along w/twins and also have always wanted a home birth... intuitively it seems right to me, and the thought of the hospital makes me feel something like:


What books did you twin homebirthing mammas find helpful to read in preparation?

Also, I notice that for many of you, twins were not your first pregnancy... these twins are, however, my first pregnancy - do you believe this should make a difference in HB vs. not?

Thanks for any responses!
 
#11 ·
Shouldn't make a difference whether it's your first or fifth pregnancy!

I highly recommend Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble. Not "fear factor" like the other ones, pro AP, no-circ, etc..
 
#12 ·
Well I already ordered Having Twins by Noble, and have an appointment with the midwife that I was already going to see, and a midwife that has a lot of twin and breech experience in town. I am really excited! I think I can do this...I also dont think it matters if its your first or 100th, the reasons for doing a home birth are so personal and if you are like me, it just feels like the right place to be doing this...even if things turn out that I need to go to the hosp., at least we will be doing all that we can. Can you guys who have already had your twins give me any tips on questions that I should ask?
 
#13 ·
i had one twin at home and one at hospital and the delight and validation of the successful homebirth is what sustained me through the misery of hospital and c-section and resultant crap. midwives will know if you need to transfer, they are very good at watching for signs. this was my second pregnancy but i had midwifes for my first also, tho not at home.

i had a long list of questions to ask midwives and if i can dig it up i will post it. i think you need to be comfortable with her willingness to transfer if necessary so that you're not worrying about staying home when you shouldn't, then you can concentrate on birthing your babies instead of worrying about where you're doing it...i did not use a particular midwife in my town because i felt that she was more interested in serving a twin birth for the experience than caring for me and my babies and my birth.

and plan on being smart about labor. prepare in case its long. rest as much as you can early and eat and drink to sustain yourself. educate yourself about labor strategies.

i read an australian birth book this time -- juju sundin's guide to birth or somesuch because my aussie friend sent it to me and raved about it. i don't know if its particularly available here but its a pretty wide open, mainstream to crunchy, just basic coping strategies for labor wherever you are. something about how the book was set up and how it encouraged practicing and finding what worked for you really got me ready. i had a super short but super intense labor with baby a and relied completely on vocalization to manage labor. it was completely manageable. the first time around i was just not as prepared as i would have liked to be and that made my long long labor just that much more difficult for me.
so that's what i would suggest is to prepare for labor because it IS manageable if you control the parts that you can control, like not getting more exhausted than you need to and not freaking out.

i hope that makes sense, didn't mean to ramble, having thought about a lot of this in a while.

best to you.
 
#14 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by nethead View Post
I had a homebirth too. If you have an experienced willing midwife nearby then why not just meet with her to ask some questions and put your mind at ease.
: and reading homebirth stories can help as well. I would never give birth anywhere but at home if I could help it.
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kjoy2 View Post
Hi ladies,

I am 20 weeks along w/twins and also have always wanted a home birth... intuitively it seems right to me, and the thought of the hospital makes me feel something like:


What books did you twin homebirthing mammas find helpful to read in preparation?

Also, I notice that for many of you, twins were not your first pregnancy... these twins are, however, my first pregnancy - do you believe this should make a difference in HB vs. not?

Thanks for any responses!
Homebirth is not something you need to earn. It's your right to have a first baby (or babies in your case) at home if you want to and are prepared. You don't need to work up to a homebirth, unless you feel you would be better served to have your first birth somewhere else. If not though, then there's no reason you shouldn't have them at home.
Good luck!
 
#17 ·
This is actually my second pregnancy and birth. My first was in a hospital but with a midwife, and things went very smoothly. I only labored for 5 hours, so things went really fast. Thats one of the reasons that I want a homebirth.

I amvery excited to meet with the midwife and I think that will tell me lot. The cool thing is that they said there would actually be three midwives at the birth, one for each baby and one for me...

I am also more than willing to transfer to the hospital if they say that it would be best for the babies or me.
 
#18 ·
All of your postive affirmations help, mammas. Thank you.

I do feel that home is the right place to birth, intuitively, and trust my body and the babies to work together - no matter that this is my first pregnancy! We have an appt with a midwife next week; I spoke with her on the phone and it felt right - she has 30 years of experience, including twins, and seems to be more of a renegade than some of the other area midwives who will not even consider HB of twins - so hopefully she'll be a willing, confident, good match. I'm still phoning other MWs to gather more info. I guess I never expected it to be so much 'work' to defend / advocate our right to birth at home!!!

MollyKenzie, I hope your MW appt goes well - that's great that she is already thinking about a MW team for the birth of your twins!


Enjoy the weekend, all.
 
#19 ·
I had mine at home too! It was great, went super fast (1hr 35 min from waking to both babies out) and was sooooo nice to not have a car ride or deal with hospital stuff. The whole having to birth in the operating room *just in case* thing really, really turned me off to the hospital. I was very confident in my ability to do this but the thought of everyone (they have about 12 hospital staff in the room and I would have gotten 1 person) waiting around for things to go wrong really did not apeal to me. Anyway, you sound pretty confident about it and that is great! I hope it goes well with the mw
 
#22 ·
I had a homebirth with all my babies (two singletons, then twins) and didn't know the last ones were twins until after the first was born. I wouldn't have changed it for the world! And if we had known (chose not to have an ultrasound ) then our midwives wouldn't have done a homebirth, so I'm glad for the suprise!

Deb
 
#24 ·
Well, DH and I just yesterday met with a different midwife to talk about HB. She started the conversation by saying that b/c I have twins and am first time prego, I should plan for a hospital birth, just find a doctor who supports the physiological side of delivery. She got a bit better as the time went by and is very knowledgeable of the medical side of things. Eventually she said she'd support either a home birth or act as labor hospital support. But she seems (obviously) very tentative to me and much more conservative than I am looking for. I didn't feel supported by her, and she makes me doubt my ability to carry the babies full term and birth naturally at home without complication. She made me feel AWFUL and I was crying for hours after meeting with her (she is very respected in this area, wrote the MW standards of care for the state, etc., but I really think she is more medically minded than what I need/want).

She also suggested we get back up care by a physician, which to me would be good for the case of pre-term labor (to have a relationship with someone we trust) but is also like saying, "these babies will be born before 37 weeks". NOT the message I want to give to my subconscious, my body, or the babies. Plus, how do we afford both a midwife and a doctor?

We had met with another MW that I really clicked with. She was very positive about a twin HB and had faith in me. I mean, she made me feel so empowered and not like I was 'crazy' for believing in my body and nature and the power of positive thinking. She is located farther away and her services cost a lot more... I'll have to try to bargain on cost with her. DH said he'd be okay with her, too, in the end, but he'd still want us to see an OB. I have an appt with an OB at the end of January (he's known to not be so interventionalist with twins), mostly just to appease my husband, and the best case scenario is that he agrees to act as a back-up in the case of pre term labor though I'd be receiving prenatal care from a MW. Otherwise, it's going to be another struggle getting DH to see that midwifery care IS thorough prenatal care and that there would be no reason for me to be seeing both a MW and an OB, and how the heck would we pay for that anyway?!!. In addition to that, I wouldn't want the OB to put pressure on our MW to not attend the birth at home. And lastly, in my opinion I only would need to consult an OB if an issue would arise that would call for a specialist.

Last night I explained to my DH all of my feelings about this and how I need for him to read the same books that I've read that offer real information about midwifery care and HBing and the in-hospital world. He agreed and hopefully will start to understand the choices, dilemmas, and politics.

ANYWAY, what were your experiences like? Did anyone else face this much opposition to HB of twins? And, please, if you have any thoughts re: concurrent MW/OB care for a so-far uneventful twin pregnancy, please let me know.

My head is spinning, and I really wish I had a few more advocates surrounding me right now! Or at least a good girl friend within driving distance to go and drink some tea with


Hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start!!
 
#25 ·
I'm w/in driving distance.
I'd personally be hesitant about the concurrent care, simply b/c I think it would be unlikely to find an OB who truly did not pressure you a lot and throw a lot of scare tactics your way. Even the mw who was *willing* to do a hb with you did that essentially. Prenatal care w/a hb mw is going to be so much more thorough (IME) than with an OB - it's just so much more personal. I think if your dh reads the books you request he's got to come around to your line of thinking. My twins weren't my first so I can't speak to that but my dh knew full well that any baby I'd be having would be born at home unless there was some reason *I* felt s/he needed to be born in the hospital. He also knows that I do my homework and would not make decisions like this lightly - especially if it really put my babies lives at risk. Anyway, he didn't oppose it. We discussed every scenario we could think of and figured out a best plan of action - things like that. We were prepared. And ultimately we had an excellent birth experience with them - even with post partum hemmorage that wasn't unexpected (nor expected, of course) that was well dealt with by the mw. I'm here for you if you ever want a real life person to talk to/hang out with.
 
#26 ·
2+twins, Thank you for ... everything
I think you are so right about the concurrent care - I just can't see it working, either, and believe (after I got additional info from someone else who had experiences with the same local players) that the MW I saw really suggested concurrent care as a means of most likely preventing me from HBing.
I am very excited to continue my conversation with the first MW we met with, who was wonderful, experienced, and willing to help us HB twins.
I really liked that you and your husband worked together to come up with action plans for 'in case' scenarios, and I hope that my husband will also educate himself enough so that he and I can then do the same.
So, maybe sometime I could bring tea to your house?!
 
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