This will be our fourth homebirth! We are really excited...found a midwife about whom I'm very excited, even though we haven't had an official prenatal appt yet....our first appt is on the 20th!
Water has always been an important part of my births, even my hospital one (they pretty much had to force me out of the tub and back into bed.
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With our first homebirth, we lived in a super tiny house with no tub, so we moved the furniture and had a kiddie pool in the living room! Once I got in, I didn't want out--the midwife had to suggest that i get out and take a walk to increase my contractions while they warmed up the pool!
DD1 was born in the water...she was over 9 pounds, posterior, and a compound presentation, and the water helped her to glide over my perineum without barely a skid mark!
Second homebirth, we lived in a house with a huge, deep bathtub. I labored in the tub a great deal of the time, but as I neared pushing, I wanted out. Turns out ds2's cord was tangled, and being out of the water made it much easier for dh and the midwife to loosen him. Funny how our bodies just
know...
Third homebirth was wonderful and most of the time I was in the water (same house, big tub) but we ran out of hot water and I got out while my mom was boiling water in every container she could find, including a bowl in the microwave! But dd2 wouldn't wait....she was born on dry land, and the ONLY thing I could think about was getting back in that tub of finally-hot water!
As soon as the placenta was born, I gave the baby to dh and I got in the tub--they cut her cord and brought her to me, and I nursed her while I soaked in that glorious tub and everyone cleaned up and remade our bed!
This time I'm not sure how things are gonna work out....we now live in a 2-story house, with the laundry room on the bottom level and bedrooms upstairs....not sure how we could get a hose up to fill a birthing pool, and our tub is very small and shallow.
We could set set it up on the ground floor I guess, but I think I'd prefer to be in more of a private setting, what with the kids (and whoever is here to tend to them) running all over. And likely it will be much too cold for them to play outside....so I'm not sure how we'll work things....that's one thing I intend to ask the midwife at our upcoming appointment; I'm sure she'll have ideas. I wouldn't mind investing in a nice birth tub, but I just can't imagine how we could set it up in our bedroom/bathroom and still be able to fill it or drain it easily!