View Full Version : Homebirths - for Mary :)
Tamika
03-10-2007, 09:30 PM
So we've talked a bit about hospital stays, but how about 'home stays'? LOL
Anyone else besides my boys and Miss Francesca born at home? And Mary's soon-to-be born at home baby?
If so, what was your experience?
For those who haven't did you ever have any question for those who did?? Any question that you just never really thought of asking as it wasn't all that important ;) or you just never had anyone to ask??
The funniest one I've been asked was "What did you do with the placenta??"
well, Kieran's was taken by my midwive's students who backed up at the delivery - they practiced suturing on it.
Treyce's - its still in the freezer! LOL We never found a tree we could agree on last year so this year I'm picking it - I had to push that 10lber out so its my right! LOL
I wonder what kind of questions I'll get? :) I haven't really gotten many yet about our plans but I think it's because I just don't talk to many people over the course of any given week. I'm planning on getting the little miss some homebirth t-shirts so we'll see if we get any questions or comments when she wears them out of the house.
I'm really looking forward to the whole process. I don't know if it's naive of me or what to actually be wanting to go through it all. (For those who don't know, my other two children were not only born in the hospital but I had an epidural both times so I've never done this medication-free before.) I'm just really really curious to see what it will be like.
I'm interested in hearing anything anybody wants to share!
Hey, here's a question for you, Tamika, and for Steph. This is a weird thing to wonder about, I know, but it's the sort of stuff I obsess over. Did you feel like you had to keep your house really clean starting right before your due date so that it would look nice when you went into labor and the midwife came? LOL I have been super-motivated lately to keep up with stuff around here because I don't want the house to be an embarrassing wreck when the time comes (it's usually a major mess in here). I'm planning on having dh do some last-minute prep around here once labor actually starts, like giving the bathroom a going-over and making sure there aren't dirty dishes around. We've got at least 2 hours from the time we call the midwife till she gets here so plenty of time for him to tidy up a bit. ;)
YourMom
03-12-2007, 03:17 PM
Mary - I totally felt like tidying up for the last few weeks (and, ahem, then some. ;)) Luckily, my mom got here 24 hours before the mw did, and she's a compulsive cleaner. The house was probably CLEANER than a hospital by the time Peggy and Julie arrived.
Tamika - my placenta is sitting in a landfill somewhere. :lol I did check it out though.. meant to take a picture, but that got forgotten. It was really cool though! (Apparently the thing to do in hospitals is to birth them straight into a trashcan?!)
I always thought that they put the placenta in a container first so they could examine it and make sure it was whole so they knew it was all out?? That's what I thought I remembered hearing -- but I could be wrong. I wasn't paying attention and I certainly had one of those big trash bags that hung right on the end of the bed that everything else went into so it may have, indeed, gone directly in there.
I wish someone was going to be here to clean -- other than dh, I mean! I bet my mom would whip things into shape in the two hours it'll take for the midwife to get here. Unfortunately Mom won't be here till April 2nd and dear lord I better not still be pregnant then! :haha
I'm just glad I've been nesting for the past week or so because I've gotten tons done AND I'm motivated to keep up with it. Normally it would've gone all to hell again by now but all the rooms except the kids' rooms are within 10-15 minutes of being company-presentable, which is completely unheard of for me.
YourMom
03-12-2007, 08:39 PM
I took comfort in knowing that my mw had 8 children of her own, so a messy house would be nothing new! LOL We have a bowl here now that is referred to as "the placenta bowl." :eating I know my sister said they just separate the bed so the placenta can fall down into the bag, and I think my doula saidthe same about the hospital where I had Adia.
Tamika
03-12-2007, 08:45 PM
As for the placenta - yes, they are supposed to check it out to make sure it has the right 'elements' including that its completely intact (meaning none is left inside you), that the cord has the right number of vessels, etc etc etc.
Mary - we were supposed to have an old cake pan to put the placenta in and then we put it in an old yogurt container.
As for cleaning - I about spewed my water when I read that one. Kieran if you'll remember was NOT supposed to be a home birth. We had moved into our house 1 month and 1 week before he was born, and in that time we'd had my aunt/uncle/3 cousins here for over a week visiting, and I was 9 months pg. So, I'd hardly unpacked. I'll have to find a pic of me holding Kieran immediately after his birth - I'm leaning against my heirloom cedar chest and the top of it has every square centimetre covered with towels, sheets, clothes etc. It was a DISASTER in our room and once I was actually in the throes of labor I could have cared less. It was AFTER when I looked at the pics that I was like "OH. MY. GOSH."
As for Treyce - I was really nesting that time so my house was almost spotless and our room - where he was delivered - was very clean as we needed space for the pool. It is also the first time I'd ever really 'nested' as when I was pg with Kaylyn I was packing to move in my last 3 months and with Kieran I was packing to move and unpacking in the last 3 months, so my nesting was 'hidden'. LOL
Hmm....I haven't been told anything about the placenta. I guess I should ask my midwife about whether I need to provide something for it. Unless there's something in my birth kit to stick it in. I haven't really gone through the box except to take my peri-cold packs out and put them away. The only thing she told me to get was a fish net in case we need it to get stuff out of the tub, which makes me want to cry every time I think about it! I am such a wuss but I'm easily embarrassed.
Tamika
03-12-2007, 09:12 PM
LOL I never heard of the fishing net - but that is an awesome idea!!!!! I never had to worry about that because with all 3 of my labors I had raging (TMI to follow) diarrhea minutes before entering transition....
And yes - it could be in your birth kit - we got a birthing list and collected our stuff ourselves and that was on the list.
YourMom
03-13-2007, 07:58 AM
My mw gave me a second list of what I'd want/need in addition to what was in the kit. :D I had the pooper-scooper net too, but I had (here's my TMI) constipation in the days leading up to labour, and it was almost a week after she was born before I pooped again. So no need for it here either. ;)
That's what happened to me the other two times, and I thought it was going to happen again but the last four or five days I have been heading for the bathroom numerous times a day so I don't think I can count on being stopped up any more! Boohoo. LOL I keep telling myself my body is cleaning itself out before labor so maybe there won't be anything left, hmmm? :D
Kristen
03-14-2007, 05:34 AM
All mine were born in a hospital, of course, but I never birthed my placenta into a trash bag. It was always in a stainless steel pan(kinda like a 9x13 pan! LOL) and they always checked it over. and Steve tried very hard to NOT look at it, because he is very faint about that kind of thing. :giggle
I can't really add any wisdom to this, but Mary, if you can, get a book called "Hello Baby" for your kids...it's just gorgeous, and it's a homebirth story told from the perspective of the baby's older sibling.
Cool, I wonder if my midwife has it? They have an extensive lending library at the birth center. I will have to ask her about it next time I'm there.
YourMom
03-14-2007, 12:44 PM
another one is "welcome with love"
adia adored it! :D
kristen - you md folks just aren't as sophisticated as we are down here LOL
Tamika
03-14-2007, 02:48 PM
LOL Steph - are you thinking it sounds kinda redneck too?? LOL LOL I sooo know that Mary's not, but that totally sounds something that would fit a 'redneck theme'.
YourMom
03-14-2007, 06:37 PM
placenta in trashbag? totally redneck! LOL (and the weirdo in me feels it's a little disrespectful to the thing that nourished a baby for so long, kwim?)
I and a good number of my siblings were born at home. I am a big supporter of the right to have babies at home, although IMHO there should ALWAYS be a trained midwife or nurse or Dr. around. I have issues with the idea of there not being a trained medical person there, because I have seen two home births births that were not as planned.
I had my daughter is a great hospital in OR, had the birthing suite-type thing with the tub and jacuzzi and all that. Personally, if I lived somewhere that had a good hospital like that I'd do that over home birth.
Tamika
03-18-2007, 10:41 PM
Oh do I totally agree that there should be a trained professional present. UA births are becoming soooooooooooooooooooo popular around here. Partially because of the lack of funding for midwives - they are really only available for homebirths if you pay out of pocket.
So many things can happen that trained professionals can help with if they are present, but that don't require a hospital. I had a bleed after Treyce's birth that had we been alone I could have died, or had to be rushed to hospital via ambulance, but my midwives were completely competent to control the bleed at home - they had the same meds and more (homeopathics) that controlled my bleed and I still had the comforts of home!
*nods* After one brother my mom had to be rushed to the hospital becuase she was bleeding out. Had several transfusions and almost died.