Home water birth – did you rent or buy the kit, any tips?

We are planning for a home delivery and want a water birth. We’ve found a couple of paces to but our rent the pool online but wondered what to do with the kit afterwards if we bought it as it’s almost the same price to rent.

Plan is to have the baby downstairs and pool will be on on a solid tiled floor. Buying lots of plastic sheeting and towels (charity shop) later today.

Anything else we should consider/ remember to get our do?

Poop scoop to fish the poop out the pool.

Just rent, too much crap in world/house already and once the baby arrives you wont have time to deal with it

And 🙂 at the poop scoop

And.. if you are doing it at home be aware that you might not have the midwife around when the baby arrives if it all starts a little quickly. That’s fun

Have you arranged this with a midwife, given Mrs B has to look after 3-4 ladies at a time I’d be impressed if there is spare capacity to allow a midwife to be there.
What if it all goes pear shaped? How far away from hospital are you?

Friend had very tough time with a home water birth, wife and baby rushed to hospital, he had to rush out and didn’t have time to clean up the mess till quite a while later !

We’ve three kids, only the second would have been suitable for a home-birth – and you only know this after the event…

First was ‘pulled’ out by a vast team very quickly and the third was an emergency section, on a bank holiday.

Anything else we should consider/ remember to get our do?

Yes – consider what would happen if things were to go belly up. With our first the “plan” was a water birth, the reality was a rush trip to theatre and a purple, non responsive baby for a few minutes. If we had been at home I would have two children today and not three.

The ‘plan’ is only there to make the Mother feel at ease, the medics wait and see what happens.

I know where I would rather be, but I guess a water birth at home sounds a nice and romantic way of doing it

My wife toyed with he idea of a home water birth, I then got a couple of our friends who obs/ gynae doctors to have a word! The general consensus was that if NOTHING goes wrong then it can be a bit more relaxing, but and this is a huge BUT if the baby starts getting into difficulty do you really want to be dicking around for the 20/30mins it might take you to either get into hospital or for Doctors to get to you?

Similar experience to WML here also. So from my own personal perspective I can’t really understand why anyone would want to deny their wife and child immediate access to the best possible care.

have a stern word with your dearly beloved and remind her that it’s your baby too and put her ‘hippy’ birthing plan ideas into ‘soft focus’ of idyllic resuscitation, brain damage from hypoxia and a lifetime of peg tube feeding requiring wheelchair access wherever you go. Which will be mostly in and out of hospital for years and years.

theblackmount – Member

I can’t really understand why anyone would want to deny their wife and child immediate access to the best possible care.

Because being around doctors increases the chance of interventions which themselves carry risks.

For women having a second or subsequent baby, planned home births are as safe for the baby as planned birth in hospital and offer health and other benefits for the mother.
For women having a first baby, a planned home birth increases the risk for the baby somewhat. In all groups of women, there were at least 990/1000 births without adverse outcomes. There were 9.3 adverse outcomes for babies per 1000 planned home births compared with 5.3 per 1000 for ones planned in obstetric units, and this finding was statistically significant. So there may be around four extra adverse outcomes in every 1000 planned home births compared with ones planned in obstetric units.

Birthplace results show 88% of planned home births were ‘normal births’ compared to fewer than 60% of planned obstetric unit births.

http://www.nct.org.uk/birth/home-birth-safe

I know where I would rather be, but I guess a water birth at home sounds a nice and romantic way of doing it

Ah..the romance of crapping yourself in a paddling pool in the living room.

Don’t forget the candles 8)

Would four be enough?

What about a water birth in the delivery suite as a compromise.. No blood or poop to clean up either.

If you are lucky to have neighbours with a large family, just borrow thei r extra large wheelie bin and use that as the birthing pool, dead easy to empty afterwards in the back street o ruse it to water the plants.

>Because being around doctors increases the chance of interventions which themselves carry risks.<

But:

>So there may be around four extra adverse outcomes in every 1000 planned home births compared with ones planned in obstetric units.<

Good enough for me.

Doubt the OP is behind this choice. Most women make this important choice for themselves… Also I’m sure the will have been advised of risks and benefits of all options by a midwife so let them be.

What about a water birth in the delivery suite as a compromise.. No blood or poop to clean up either.

This, in a midwife-led unit co-located with an obstetric led unit so the cavalry are nearby if it all goes pear shaped.

After our first the midwife encouraged any more to be home births. My other half opted for that as the hospital stressed her way more than the birth. Second arrived at home, without issue and with two midwives present, both eating me out of biscuits and tea! OH was in the bath to be ‘more comfortable’ and was told she could stay there if she wanted – she did and out it popped. Clean up kits had already been provided by the hospital and an hour later we were on our own.

Doubt the OH would have been happy at home for the first though – with all the unknowns.

EDIT: we were only five mins from the hospital if we needed it.

Cloudnine is probably suggesting the best compromise – depends on whether or not you want a home birth most or a water birth 🙂 I personally wouldn’t mix the two…
Both my kids were born at home. Two midwifes were in attendance for both births (and the local obs/gynae popped in for the first while he was walking the dogs…). Our local area (Allerdale) had a strong team of midwifes that were very pro-home births though.
PS I’m fairly confident that I don’t fit the ‘hippy’ description above but then again its an easy cheap shot.

For some ladies, the idea of a water birth and the potential extra relaxation it offers is a good thing, but some don’t actually like it when they get in there. Equally, as you can’t always guarantee when the little one may make an appearance, you could have the ‘pleasure’ of a large bath sitting in the house to try and find a way round each time you are in that room, and making things nicely damp for several days/weeks.

Two nippers, both born at home with nothing more than paracetamol to help, even wirh the stiches, my wife seems to combine ‘hippy dippy’ with ‘hard as nails’ when the mood takes her.

She did the research, made an informed decision and we both agreed that if there were any signs that either birth may have complications we’d go straight to hospital, there’s a fair degree of luck involved but overall the friends and NCT buddies who gave birth at home on average had a better, calmer experience and found the first few months easier less post natal depression etc.

Do your research, make a decision but don’t be dogmatic, be prepared to switch to plan B quickly if required, the mother and baby’s health should always be the top priority but if these are both looking fine then it’s really her call, she’ll be the one doing all the work.

its a personal choice but for both of mine we needed the hospital facilities and it would be my recommendation and ignore the dreamy world of the nct etc.

My best friend chose a birthing centre. It went horribly wrong. Their son has four limb cerebral palsy, is blind and can’t feed himself. He sued the hospital and after 5 years they admitted liability and an out of court settlement. Their life has been hell. Obviously that is at the extreme end of the spectrum but you only get one chance and I’d always go to a big hospital if only to reduce the chance of what Ive seen my friend go through even though it’s less ‘natural’

Whatever you choose though, hope it all goes well!

Bought from ebay and sold on ebay afterwards.. We didnt use it in the end. Be aware it takes an eternity to fill up. I did a dry run to see what it should look like inflated and how much space it took. God knows how you keep it warm for the duration. We arranged a midwife and they schedule some kit to drop off beforehand.

Consider that there is limited pain relief available. Good luck with the birth and hope it all works out.

Yeah your choice OP but I filed home birth under ‘**** that’ yeah child birth is the most natural thing in the world as no doubt some hemp skirt wearing earth mother told you – but never forget nature is cruel and brutal when it wants to be and a crack team of consultants and mid-wives top trumps familiar soft furnishings when the inevitable ‘complication’ raises its head. Modern medical science it’s ace.

Mmmm I suspect that didn’t pan out quite how the op had anticipated.

Second arrived at home, without issue and with two midwives present

Seems a little indulgent IMHO
Of course at least one of those could have been an off duty friend/relative/neighbour

I can only agree with the nay sayers I’m afraid. Junior 1 needed special care. The only friend we know who went for a home birth experienced complications and can have no more children as a result.

Don’t forget the legionnaires too

All four of our children were born at home, 2 with water. If you wanna chat feel free to email kenadolphe AT Hotmail DOT com

Given the medical and technological advantages of having a baby in a hospital I can not understand why you would take the risk…

Crikey, I didn’t expect that responses from the STW brigade!

We’re not hippies and we both want this. Four of my nieces and nephews are water babies, all delivered at home perfectly fine, they’re in their 20’s now and having babies of their own.

We are 5 min from the hospital if things go pear shaped and the midwife’s are completely behind us.

Kja, thanks, will do.

We have had 2 children as home births bought the birthing pool for the first one but my wife liked the tens machine so much she didn’t want to stop using it to get in the pool. We had 2 midwifes at both the births plus a trainee at one. The only concern the midwife had about the water birth was about my ability to lift my wife out of the pool if the worst was to be happening. They have hoists in hospital. I was very happy that I was more than big enough and strong enough to lift my wife out. Good luck with a nice trouble and stress free birth.

Ok we ARE Hippies (man)! and our daughter was born at home but not a water birth. Our son was a water birth and the only reason that he wasn’t born at home was that we had moved to a very small house and there was no room. He was born in the local (now closed) maternity unit.Both births went well with no pain relief at all. My wife says that the first birth at home,although much longer and harder than the seccond at the time she has fonder memories of, as we were together in physical contact at all times which she felt realy helped with the pain. The pool in the water birth was too small for us both for me to hold her and so I felt like a totaly helpless spare part for my son’s birth.

Just had a sucsuccessful water birth at home two weeks ago today! The only thing that caused concern was the lack of a waterproof heart rate monitor for the baby (Doppler?) – made me very nervous at one point just before he was born. We rented the kit by the way and was nice and easy, the only extra I needed was a tap adapter for the filling hose.

I’d hate to be the guy who has the job of cleaning rental water baths

I’d hate to be the guy who has the job of cleaning rental water baths

It’s probably not so bad, the uniform’s quite natty

They are all different apparently ? we went for a birthing pool , it was fantastic – for the first 20 hours – 20 to 48 hour was nightmare as Mrs got out and wanted bed . luckily we live .01 miles from Hospital (quicker to walk than drive?althought not at 4am for the 3rd time ?) go with what the nurses say they know best and good luck xx
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They are all different apparently ? we went for a birthing pool , it was fantastic – for the first 20 hours – 20 to 48 hour was nightmare as Mrs got out and wanted bed . luckily we live .01 miles from Hospital (quicker to walk than drive?althought not at 4am for the 3rd time ?) go with what the nurses midwife say they know best and good luck xx

You’d get a kidney punch if you called my wife a nurse.

geoffj – its the hospital that decide how many staff are present at home births so having two is hardly indulgence is it. Very odd thing to say. It may well be due to hours worked as the first was there on her own for 2-3 hours having been called out at 3am. Damn site cheaper for the NHS as well and gives the mother better rest than being on a maternity ward.

Having a home birth and signing up to the mantra of the NCT are not necessarily the same thing so this hippy hating is also odd. Each to their own and listen to the midwife. Very glad that we’re never doing it again though…

You’d get a kidney punch if you called my wife a nurse.

Because…?