home birth or water birth?

Hey hun

I will be honest and say that i loved my water birth better than my homebirth. I still laboured in the water with my homebirth however i have a small bath and couldnt birth in it. I wasnt very happy to have to get out as i find the pain easier to deal with in the water. The good points were i was in my home and got to sleep in my own bed. However if i remember right you went home not long after Laurens birth??

I still havent decided what to do with this baby. I have ages to think about that. If i can hire a birth pool that heats then it will be a homebirth. Otherwise it will be a hospital water birth and then come home.

I had a hospital waterbirth with my first, and planned to have a home waterbirth with my second, but she came so quickly we didn't make it to the pool in time. So, with that in mind, I think that as much as I loved birthing in the water I'd rather stay home!

I was terrified about going to hospital to have Aiden after a hideous hospital birth with Isla. I liked the idea of a water birth, but in the end didnt bother to get a pool cos it was gonna take so much effort to heat extra water on the stove and to fill the pool once in labour and I wanted DH to be able to focus on me and do what I wanted and not be busy doing the pool.
I ended up spending quite a lot of time in the bath- maybe about 2 hrs I think, but it was such a hot day and not the middle of winter! Whent he midwife came she did an internal while i was still in the birth and I was 8cm so she made me get out cos the water was too cold to have baby in, and I didnt want to be in a hot bath! We ened up having to go to hospital - but I got to 10cm dilated and pushing at home then waters broke and there was muconium. Aiden was born an hr later in hospital. It was still so wonderful and I would deinatly have a homebirth if we have a 3rd child, and would be happy to just use the bath in labour again and not bother will a pool.

My pool emptied our hot cylinder once, and we boiled kettles and pots to get the rest of the water. LOL We started filling it as soon as we'd rung the midwife (which was essentially as soon as I realised I'd had a show (got woken out of a dead sleep by a contraction). Having said that we only JUST got the thing filled. LOL He was in a screaming hurry at just under 2 hours. Luckily for us we'd actually put it back up 2 days before as we'd taken it down when we realised that he wasn't going to be early like his big brother. If we'd had to assemble it as well, he wouldn't have been born in water.

If I had to choose one or the other though I'd still choose to stay at home. I loathe hospitals, think they are for sick people and pregnancy/birth is not an illness. My hospital birth with DS1 was okay, near perfect seeing as I was refused a home and birth centre birth with him in the UK but just not something I would choose again if I didn't need to. I loved that I could find positions that i was comfortable in, not ones that were 'easier' for the medical staff, I loved that I climbed into my own bed afterwards and that DS1 got to meet his little brother within minutes of him being born.

hehe, neither, drugs all the way next time baby :-P

In saying that tho , id prob say homebirth , I love the idea of being able to get straight into my own bed after baby is born with DH and my older kids around me , oohing and aahing at our latest arrival .
Both my children were born without pain relief, with C I hated being in the water, with Ty I loved it , with C I was at the hospital with Ty I was at a birthing centre which was as close to home as my paranoid worrywart husband would allow , and I definetly preferred the birthihng centre over the hospital

I had a waterbirth with number 2. Labouring in the water was wonderful and I'm not entirely sure how people manage to get out between contractions in order to push out of the water. To be honest, and this is my experience only, I found pushing in the water harder than out of the water. Perhaps it was just my position though.

If I did it again, I'd be tempted to go for home birth as my labours are so quick and intense that travelling to hospital in a car with contractions 30secs apart was not a fun experience! I felt like I had to divert all my strength to keeping baby in i.e. not delivering in the car. I think staying home and focussing on my baby and my body would be a much more peaceful thing to do.

Sorry, I didn't see your question to me earlier!

What made it worth while... well, there are a few reasons.

First of all I was surrounded by all my own comforts, and everything was familiar.

Secondly it meant I didn't have to go anywhere! The car ride to hospital with DD1 was hideous.

Thirdly it meant that my first daughter was able to see that labour and birth are a normal part of life, nothing to be afraid of - she was so unphased by everything and was incredibly excited to be able to see her little sister just seconds after she was born.

There was no interference from my midwife, no interventions, and barely any time for any kind of monitoring at all - I was on my own turf in any case and had explicitly stated that blood pressure would be taken only once to establish a baseline, hb monitoring would be half hourly and as brief as possible, and NO vaginal exams... I am very doubtful I would have managed to get away with such a hands off approach in a hospital or even a birthing centre.

After DD was born (onto my bedroom floor) I was able to chillax in my own lounge, with my hubby, daughter, support person / friend and mw, and just drink in my brand new baby and be supported. I cleaned up in my *own* shower, and just reached into my own dresser for clean clothes to get dressed in.

It might sound like small stuff, but it made a LOT of difference to me.

I have two girls and had two homebirths - the last one only four days ago. It is the most wonderful, most beautiful experience. I had fabulous midwives present (two of them), and it was just very calm and comfortable. I had no pain relief, just some acupressure and a little bit of acupuncture. I laboured for only a few hours (2.30am until about 4.45am), so when my daughter woke in the morning she had a beautiful new sister! Had loads of skin to skin with new baby, peaceful time with us all eating breakfast and talking about our lovely new girl. I was on such a high. And then you can shower in your own bathroom, get dressed, relax. Very special. I would completely recommend a home birth.

I did have one relation who wanted me to promise to go to hospital, but I knew what I wanted to do. Even DH didn't get much of a choice in the matter!!

Good luck with whatever you choose.

i would go waterbirth..
i recently had my son at a birthing unit, laboured in the water and got out for the midwife to check me - ended up pushing him out on the bed but both his shoulders got stuck and they had to pull him out by his neck
next time im still allowed to labour in the water but not have a waterbirth -and i have to go to hospital, as my pelvis seems to be too small and its likely we'll have complications again.

so if its your first i would be somewhere they can deal with complications

Ive had 2 home waterbirths, one in the bath and one in a pool, both were awesome, I also had one in the shower at the hospital and that was awesome and easy to. If I had to pick I would def have a homebirth. Just the comforts of home make it so worthwhile I loved it. Just to let you know I have also had 2 emergency c-secs and 1 hospital birth on a bed so I have a lot to compare, lol. For me homebirth was the way to go, good luck