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.

Yes, my family has had eight home-births.

Eat lots of yoghurt, blue cheese, sardines.

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.