possible home birth

fish · possible home birth

my wife is due our 4th boy in 8 weeks,only problem is she was told yesterday that she is 4/5 ths engaged all ready! that and the fact that she has never had a labour over 55 minutes and an ambulance takes 35 minutes to get to us makes me a bit worried about having to deliver the baby my self! all i can think of is james herriot ,hot water ,newspapers and rope!!!!! any advice out there????? Shocked

mrutty

Speak to the midwife, our friend had a home birth with no problem, unplanned but the midwife was fab.

fish

thanks!

Cabbagepatch

possibly not the rope Shocked

Becki

Oh bless can I go all broody now?

fish

yep!

mrutty

Mind you no4 you should both know what you're doing Laughing

fish

problem being ime at the top end supporting her whilst the midwife does the yukky bit!!!!! does the afterbirth come out without the injection?will fishing line do for the cord ?should i tie in two places and cut between the two?i havent got the tube thing that they clear the babys mouth with,will a bit of home brew tube work? what about stitches?do i have to boil the cotton and the needle to sterilise?should i use silk or fishing line so the stitches dont stick? what can safely be used as a pain killer? Sad

mrutty

Don't you just swing them from their back legs and then let mum have a sniff and a lick whilst you brush it down with straw.... or is that just lambs Confused

Cabbagepatch

Leonie2

speak to the midwife! and make sure you have the midwife's mobile number in an easy to reach place should you need to phone for help. My second one was a home delivery planned baby, but it didn't work out and she was born in hospital, got there just in the nick of time otherwise she would have been a "born in the car on the side of the road" baby. As far as I know the afterbirth comes out on it's own, the injection is to speed things up. If you talk to the midwife you should be able to get all the things you need kept at home, I had heaps of pethidine here at the house just incase I needed it and they gave me a list of things I'd need like towels etc...I can't remember what it all was now.

Libby

My second one was also a planned home birth, just had gas and air and it was all fine, my hubby stayed at the none yukky end too!!!! I don't know how it works now but I had 2 midwives, one for me and one for the baby!! Best thing I ever did!!!!!

fish

mid wife isnt much goo,well she is but she lives furthur away than the ambulances and it would take her an hour to get here! still it may well all go ok and in by ambulance! Laughing

Leonie2

Libby 5 years ago it still worked like that, one midwife for me and one for baby. This is why J was born in hospital, there are usually 3 midwives in our area, one was away on holiday and the other was called out into a neighbouring area for an emergency. Because there was only one left in my area she refused to come out. So by the time we got to hospital J was just about ready to be born, good job we didn't leave it till a little later to call the midwife to find out the situation otherwise J would have either been born at home without a midwife (as the only one available refused point blank to be on site) or she would have been born on the way to our nearest hospital which is about 10-15 miles away (because all our local hospitals have now been closed out of hours). I can understand the reluctance for a midwife to be called out on her own, but surely one midwife is better than none at all. And because J was a few days overdue you'd have thought they would have made provisions, or at least warned us what might happen now that they were low on staff.

Aqui

You must speak to your MW soon. I think you have to decide a long way in advance if you want a homebirth, otherwise they can't accommodate you (at least that's the case in my area).

I'm hoping for a home birth - for my first due in March. I found this website really useful: http://www.homebirth.org.uk/

Good things: the mother is more relaxed, so things should go smoother. If not, there is always the posibility of transfering to hospital if necessary. You can have most of the things you would have in hospital - apart from epidural/caesarian. THe MWs clean up the mess afterwards!

Placenta will deliver by itself (remember - women have been doing it without drugs for millions of years!) Although I think you can still have the injection at home - again speak to MW.

Also - if she wants to use a pool or TENS machine - you will have to hire them yourself. I think that website has links.

Leonie2

Aqui, think carefully about it as your first birth. My midwife was very good and encouraging about the planned home birth, but she said if I hadn't had a "track record" of a straight-forward delivery with the first one she wouldn't have recommended a home birth to me as a first time delivery.

fish

well folks at 4pm yesterday the mrs went into labour 6 weeks early,a rapid response paramedic arrived ,and anounced he had never actually done a birth before! and that the regular guys would arrive shortly,contractions were 2 minutes apart!!!!!! any how we got to salisbury district hospital(i was following in the car).after about an hour the contactions died down !!!! so we had to spend the night in the labour ward just to be on the safe side,and i had to sleep on the cold VERY hard floor,no money for grub !!! and wishing for a book!.by this morning the mrs was all back to normal ,all bar being a bit tender. had an ultrasound and all lookes fine charlie will have to stay there a bit longer!!!!! so weev got to go through all this again!!!!! Sad

Pilsbury

well at least you know a rapid response paramedic can get there so you might not be totaly alone Wink

hope it all runs smoothly when the time is right and it all goes to whatever plan you are using that night

Cabbagepatch

six weeks early....baby is best tucked away for a bit longer, but i know what you mean about going through it all again. very trying and a difficult time. sending good wishes to you both that all goes well. then we can have a"new baby" potting shed party!

Leonie2

fish, sending positive thoughts your way that baby will arrive at the right time and all will go smoothly. pack a bag now so that if this all happens again you are prepared!

fish

thanks for all the encouragement! Laughing

monkeybum

Oh good luck, main thing is stay calm I would say but don't tell her to breath, nearly knocked my OH out when he said that to me. Keep close but out of hitting distance, that's my advice. I went four weeks over and had a 28 hour labour with my first. My second was four weeks early. That was a bit of a shock. I kept arguing with the midwife saying "don't be so stupid I am not in labour, I have a C-section booked in two weeks and it will just have to wait" I think I was in shock! Rolling Eyes

I would have ten babies if it were just up to me! I go all gooey around babies! Keep us posted! Very Happy

fish

when charlie shows up well arrange a meet -up! then you can get all broody! Laughing

monkeybum

Noooooo, my OH has just spent the last few weeks trying to talk me out of having another!

n

I was thinking about a home birth 17 years ago, and I hate to be the one to say it, but if I'd had one, my seventeen year old about to go to University, extremely musical son would have been very brain damaged.
The cord was three times round his neck and he got stuck, very stuck, we both needed emergency medical intervention. I am SO glad I was in a hospital with every bit of medical equipment going, and staff who knew EXACTLY what to do.
My younger son was more straightforward, but with a prolonged rupture of membranes, he too could have been born with an infection which could have been life threatening.
It's all very well saying "it's a natural process". So is stillbirth. So is cerebral palsy. What will matter a few years after delivery? Being able to say you had a natural homebirth, or seeing your child realise it's potential.
Sorry if this offends anyone, but there are two sides to this. I have worked with parents of brain injured children and with others who have had a baby die, and they are without exception haunted by the thought that if they had done things differently, the outcome might have been different.... it might not, but they still ask, and ask, and ask and they'll continue to ask for the rest of their lives.

n

TheGirlsMum

I too was told I could have a home birth for my second (life) child but we decided that as she was arriving quite early the 18 mile drive (some of it well over the speed limit) was neccesary and I wouldn't be here now ig we hadn't and it needed the experience of the midwife to push her back in and remove the cord from her neck too.

alison

N

I too was in your position, and after a 46 hour labour it was discovered the cord was wrapped around my sons neck, and every time I pushed it tightened round his neck.

I thank God daily that the staff were so quick in dealing with this whole situation.

Aqui

OK - scared now. Everything I've read said first time was good for home birth as they normally progress slowly if there's a problem.

But... I will discuss with MW. and have a hospital tour. (they have home rooms that are less like hospital rooms - I wonder if they are nice!)

alison

Aqui

I really didn't want to scare you, but I know where I was glad to be.

My birth plan for no1 reads like fantasy fiction when you look at the reality of what actually happened. At the end of the day you want to have a normal bith with as little intervention as possible

fish

Ithink home birth is probably ok if you are within a short distance of a hospital,or an ambulance. Very Happy