Congrats Lunna , what a beautiful birth story!

Congrats to you too KM!

That is totally beautiful Lunna, well done you.

Lunna that is beautiful! Textbook perfect

Enjoy your babymoon

Hey everyone, hope all is well.

A question for those who've birthed at home... have you had anyone to look after your kids specifically during the birth? Am just working out the details and wondering if I need to organise someone to do that or if we go with the flow. ATM I've got my sister coming, and last time she was going to help with the kids but ended up being a awesome labour support so DH put the kids to bed etc while I was labouring... and now I am not sure what to do this time.

Just lurking in...

I was the other children's support person after at my SIL homebirth, when he was crowning, I woke all the kids up and took them into the lounge, it was about 5am, 3 children ranging from 6 - 3, just after my nephew was born I brought all the children in the room where they had the pool set up. Placenta still attached at this stage so they got to meet him very quickly after birth. This is what my SIL wanted, then we all went and sat on the couch in the lounge and watched sky (the kids thought that was very cool, watching cartoons in the middle of the night), SIL birthed the placenta and had a shower and came out to the lounge where I was looking after the kids and they all got baby cuddles.

It was nice. SIL Had presents for all the children from the new baby, it was SIL birthday too, so my brother had a present for her and I had a present from them because I had just got engaged, so we were sitting their watching the sun coming up opening present with this new new gorgeous boy.

It was a great honour. If your wanting the children to be part of the process you could have someone in that role???

My DS1 was only 18 months old when DS2 came. I had planned to keep him around for the birth but had asked my sister to be in charge of him. If he was upset she was to wait for the cx to end, so he could see I was okay and give me a cuddle, and then leave the room and read books, cuddle, go for a drive etc.

My midwife was all for having older children at births. They tend to take it better than adults do, they haven't been exposed to the hospital birth culture like we all have. Getting some good picture books, watching home birth vids, talking about pain in positive terms would all be great ways to prepare a young one.

When I was a child my mums close friend had her fourth child at home. All of the children were heavily involved in welcoming the baby. From creating art work and welcome banners for the birth space, to educating visitors on what exactly a 'show' is

The plan was that my MIL would look after the kids while I was in labour (probably take them out so they weren't there for the birth because I thought they might be a distraction), but DD2 was born at night so they all (including my MIL) stayed asleep for it. They were really excited to meet their new little sister in the morning.

And congrats Miss_Tuffit!! (aka BOB aka Huntress if i'm right)

I had all my kids in the house when I had my home births. They were entertained in the lounge by mum mum who brought them in once the babies were born and cleaned up Sometimes they ran into the room to see what I was doing and through the contractions I would talk to them

Another story for you, a friend of mine had her 3rd home birth last week, her 2nd planned one, and her baby was 11lb 1oz!!!!!!!!! Baby had a couple of breathing issues when he came out, but nothing the midwife couldn't help with and they are currently resting at a birthing centre 11lb 1oz HOME BIRTH! He was bigger than my homebirthed Hunter who was 10lb 10oz

All the best to any home birthers who are due xx

Lunna you are spot on. planning another homebirth too. This is J's first biological child (he considers H and R as much his as mine) so also his first birth. Is pretty exciting stuff.

We won't be scanning this pregnancy unless specifically indicated so in for a new lesson on trusting my body and baby.

I have feeling this is a girl this time. Will be an exciting surprise

I don't know if it has been discussed before, but has anybody used a califont/gas water heater for filling the birth pool before? We have a hot water cylinder and I dont want to risk running out of hot water. I WANT my water birth

I didn't use one for mine. We set up the pool really close to where the hot water is (its in the linen cupboard which is int he ktichen/dining room), so we set up in there, and so we didn't lose a lot heat in the transfer to the pool. DH tried it from the laundry in case we wanted the pool somewhere else but we lost heaps of heat.

I think some home birth associations have califont's that you can hire.

I am personally not going to worry, I was able to keep my pool at the right temp for at least two hours and my babies tend to arrive reasonably quickly. I didn't get into the pool until later in the labour either, just because sometimes it can slow things down a bit. How much I'd have no idea though.

I am mainly concerned that I will start off in the shower and not want to get out to let the pool be filled. This is what happened with DS2 and I ended up birthing in the shower instead of having my water birth. We were on gas, so i didn't have to worry about running out of hot water, but the current home has a water cylinder, so may run out.

The shower would definitely use up the water pretty quickly. I'd be more tempted to fill the pool a bit earlier and then keep it topped up to the right temp and labour in there than use the shower. I don't know how quick your other births were, mine ended up being very quick for my third, just 1.5 hours of proper labour and I was only in the pool for the last half hour. I was in earlier but my midwife was concerned that things were moving a little slow so suggested I stay out for a bit.

Are you buying or hiring a pool from someone? It'd be worth seeing if you can do a trial run with it to see how much water it uses if you can't get hold of a calfifont.

As long as the pool isn't left to go too cold, its reasonably easy to keep it up to temp.

MT- You could probably keep the pool warm just by pouring in a jug of hot water every so often once it's filled up I would think.
I got DH to run the hose of warm water down my back while the pool was filling and that felt great (similar to the shower).

Not long for you now KM, exciting!

6 months today since my homebirth

Twins. My mind is still reeling. Watch this space.

WOW! that is amazing. Imagining your mind is pretty blown away ATM.

Got birthing pool yesterday. Will do a trial run this weekend with setting up and filling. Bubs did turn breech for a bit but is nice back to head down and anterior so that's all good for me.

KM- oh not long now, exciting I hope you have another great home birth! Glad to hear bubs has turned.

MT- WOW to twins I bet your mind is reeling! Do you think you'll still go for a home birth? What does your MW think? I guess you'll have lots of research to do first. The logistics of two could be very difficult at times I imagine, particularly with demand feeding and cosleeping.

Hi all,

I am planning a HBAC and starting to feel less nauseous so more able to consider how I want the birth to be. Definitely want a pool and a support person other than my midwife and DH. Still thinking about who and also thinking about who can be around to help out with DD. I am happy to have her at the birth but knowing her short attention span and need to do things, if I am in labour during the day I will need someone to do some entertaining.

As far as while you are in labour did you or do you plan to carry on with your normal activities as long as possible before getting into 'labour zone' eg.in shower, quiet, focussing etc? I am nervous about getting all organised too early and then getting exhausted and kind of peaking too soon? If you know what I mean? Any ideas about the reality? I found the labour with my DD was pretty intense from the beginning but I dilated really slowly so I scared of getting too tired and wanting to transfer.

With my second and third labours (the third was a home birth) I basically just cruised around doing whatever until things started to move along. I had a few hours of niggles with both of them before things cranked up and I just went and did my thing.

Once I got into more established labour with the second I was going to the birthing unit so I eventually got there and had baby 20 minutes later. With the third things cranked up a bit so DH sorted the pool (no way you'd do that yourself in labour) and I just went about and did my thing however I wanted. DH got the pool sorted I hopped in there. Midwife came and I wasn't very far so suggested I stay out of the pool to move things along but after another hour I decided definitely in the pool and bubs was born 20 minutes or so later. My midwife had gone to see someone else in the interrim and DH had called her back but she didn't make it so it was just us.

So it depends on what you mean by organised. ATM I am due (but not in labour lol) so we have the pool already inflated and in our spare/baby room (it took about half an hour to manually inflate), DH has got all the stuff for the taps under the kitchen sink ready. We have a little pack of clothes including a wooly hat (stick that on baby as soon as its born, that and skin on skin means bubs will not get cold at all), and a nappy in the hot water cupboard. We have towels easily available. My midwife brings everything else.

Once I am in labour DH will probably half full the pool and once I want to get in he can get it up to the right temp. My labours have got progressively shorter and that seems to be a trend in many women so you might find that your labour is shorter and more effective...

At this birth I am planning to have DH, my sister and midwife and her back up plus a friend to take photos (she is a photographer). Depending on time of day and the kids (we have three) they will either be around and DH will sort them out or I'll send them to a friends place, I have a few options for people. My sister is an awesome birth support so she can stay with me.

So basically, I won't have to do anything but labour and I can do that how I want. In the early stages I generally do normal stuff and if it was night time I'd probably try to rest as much as I can even if its just dozing a bit and then once it cranks into proper labour I'll just do what I need to do. I won't use the shower as it would use up the hot water but I've found a point with my last two labours that there has been a definitely increase from mild-moderate labour to really getting going now labour and once that has happened I've just done what I've wanted to do.

Hope that helps.

With my second born I home birthed. I was scrubbing the floors, shower and kitchen cupboards on my hands and knees when the 'usual' bout of 'braxton hicks' started up for the evening. I just kept going on all fours, rocking my pelvis slowly during the tightenings. I didn't realise how frequent and long they were (I thought they were only a few seconds long when they were actually a minute!) until 2 hours before the birth. I then ate toasties, sent some emails whilst rocking on my ball and waddled around the house trying to finish off the cleaning. About 20 minutes before bub arrived I decided I needed dark and quiet, climbed in the shower, and then birthed. I hadn't realised how quickly things were going, and I thought I had hours to go, so my midwife wasn't called in time. :opps:

Was a fantastically boring, normal, everyday miracle.