Planning the Home Birth

So we've decided on the home birth.

What do we do now?!

That's one advantage to a hospital birth at least...you don't have to really plan anything.

That said, I guess there's not much we actually needed to get sorted. I've just gone overboard!

As far as I can tell (we haven't actually got our home visit until this Friday), all you really need to get in place yourself is lots of towels and plastic sheeting to protect the bed/floor.

Here's what I also have ready:

• Maternity pads to put on the bed under the sheet (mainly because I'm aware that my waters might break at night and I don't want to have a wet mattress!)
• Birthing pool (covered in 'Water Birth')
• Complementary therapies to chill me out. I'm going to try homeopathy, aromatherapy, massage oil and candles.
• Relaxing music and my hypnosis CD.
• New sheets and towels to replace any that get dirty (to be honest it's been a good excuse..we should have bought new towels ages ago!)
• Birthing ball (been great to sit on in pregnancy anyway. See 'The Dreaded SPD')
• TENS machine (obviously not just for home births. I'm slightly dubious about it - I can see myself finding the sensation irritating..but I suppose it's meant to take your mind off the pain so maybe it'll work a treat).

I reckon I've probably spent about £200 in all in the hope that I get the birth I want (luckily I had some savings), but as you can see, there's no need to spend that much money. A lot of the things I have bought (such as relaxing music and the birthing ball) have been really handy throughout the whole pregnancy, so I'd definitely recommend getting these sorts of things early on.

You can probably see that I'm willing to give anything a shot in order to be as relaxed as possible!

This maternity unit sure ain't gonna run out of birthing balls!

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UPDATE - After giving birth in hospital, I did realise that I under-estimated the amount of mess! So if you're planning a home birth, all I can say is towels, towels, TOWELS!! Put 2 or 3 under your sheet on your mattress, or you'll be buying a new mattress afterwards!