My wife is 10 weeks pregnant. We've decided on a home birth because we think that will give us the highest chance of having a natural birth. We also feel a home birth will be much more spiritual and God focused, which we want to make sure Jesus is as the center of it all.
We have found a team with a certified nurse midwife and others that will assist us throughout the pregnancy. We have a nearby hospital familiar with our situation in case a transfer is needed for any reason.
Has anyone else had a home birth? If so, I am curious what your experience was like.
Yes, my family has had eight home-births.
Eat lots of yoghurt, blue cheese, sardines for calcium, but also meat and eggs for iron.
We had a couple of Vegan babies, whereby the mother was fed molasses for iron, but I do no recommend this route. Iron deficiency was a big problem.
Sunbathe.
Read books, like spiritual midwifery so that your lady does not panic if she starts throwing up from the hormones. Learn about power breathing, which focuses the mind on counting the rhythm of in and out breaths: my kids called it the 'huffing yoga'. Lots of kissing and petting (yep, especially the tiddies) during birth also helps. Sex put the bubby there, and will help it come out. Also, that book tells one about relaxing the rear end during contractions. A first baby can cause a woman to clench during the pains if she does not know about that, The point is to view the pain as power and focus the strength at the top not the bottom. Sitting on all fours can help with this.
During labour have a poo-bucket, this sounds disgusting, but poo urges happen in late stages, and sitting on the bucket is just the right position to relieve it - also, walking to the toilet is just not gonna happen.
Also, don't eat sweets or honey during the labour, it can cause acid reflux which is not pleasant. Do drink water, which will make peepee, hence poo bucket, but I digress - it is important to stay hydrated.
Have you thought about water birth? Some people find that good, however, our babies came so fast there was no time to even fill a pool, let alone get it to temp. Nevertheless, if you have access to a spa-pool, that might be an idea - set it at a temp that is not too hot though.
Oh and lastly, have some string and a sterilized pair of scissors handy. (we baked the scissors and string beforehand and dropped tea-tree oil all over them, and then wrapped it in a dry cloth, all ready. When the baby is born you need to wait until the cord stops pulsing. You can safely wait until the afterbirth comes out as well, but sometimes that is not convenient. THEN you can tie it and cut it. Make sure you have a nice stack of fluffy towels or cloth diapers, to catch liquids and keep baby warm.
We had six out of those eight babies all by ourselves, the other two had midwives present. If you do choose to have someone like that there, tell them hands OFF. Do not let them stretch the cervix, or manually feel. This can speed it up all right: One of those babies came so fast that the mother nearly passed out, which is very scary.
Hi, thanks for your response. This will be our first baby.
Yes, we've got that book and have watched Ina's movie, and many other midwife movies, as well.
Haha yeah we've seen many big smooches in the movies we've seen which helped "soften" the mother up.
We plan on having a birthing tub for her, as well as a poop catcher :).
We will be doing a delayed cord clamping as well. Our CNM has told us her goal is to do what we want, and if that means being a fly on the wall she was for it. However if something goes wrong she will step in, of course.
We had a homebirth for our first, it was an amazing experience and had a wonderful outcome using a birthing tub. The biggest thing is keeping Mom relaxed. The tub was #1 for that, I was #2 and our labor dula was #3. The more relaxed she is, the easier everything will be. We read the Father Coached Birth which helps Dad be more equipped to notice and help mom relax during the intense parts.
We used primrose oil daily for a few weeks before birth (inserted not orally) to help soften the cervix. Sex is of course better for that though so we used both methods.
Make sure the CNM has a good track record meaning they haven’t had a lot of transfers or emergencies they couldn’t deal with. Make sure they are capable of dealing with common emergencies like cord wrapped around head, and shoulder dystocia. Have a plan in place for in case baby is breach as only a few CNMs are even allowed to deliver this way. It is a beautiful experience but one that you and the CNM must be wellllllll prepared for. God bless!