I'm in Stoke on trent which isn't a million miles away and I had a home water birth. I didn't decide to go for a waterbirth until I was about 25 weeks pregnant and we'd been to a birth plan meeting and the midwife suggested it. It was the best thing I've ever done. My birth experience was fab and I totally loved it.
My decision was based on the fact that I really wanted a waterbirth and at the hospital there was only one pool so you had to take the chance that the pool was empty when you needed it. My first step was to speak to my midwife at my next antenatal appointment and get myself booked for the homebirth. She did say that because it was my first pregnancy and birth it's not recommended becaue they don't know what might happen but I figured that that could be the case for any birth so it didn't matter. She discussed with me the fact that you get two midwives with you for the birth (one assigned for your care and the other for the baby) and that an ambulance is on standby in case it's needed and that I would be at the hospital within about 30 minutes if I had to go in for any reason. Be prepared for them to try and talk you out of it...... I was. fortunately the midwife I saw who booked for the homebirth was very much for them and just gave me the details whereas my usual midwife who was back off her holiday the week after tried to talk me out of it. I was very determined that I wanted to do it though so she knew she was onto a looser!!
I looked into hiring a pool but there were very expensive and so in the end I bought one of these
http://www.madeinwater.co.uk/pool.html and I really can't recommend it enough. At just over £100 it was a lot cheaper than hiring one and we get to keep it and it doesn't say it's a birthing pool anywhere on it so it will be great for when she gets older, we can use it as a ball pit or a paddling pool in the summer. It's really spacious so there was plenty of room for me to move to different positions during labour and it handles for me to grab on during the most painful contractions. It was even big enough that if my husband had wanted to get in he could have done. The only down bit was keeping it warm, although I was in it for over 24 hours so it was a long time to keep the temperature up so I'd recommend trying to find a water heater if you can get one for it. It also had a blow up bottom so it's really soft on your knees or bum. It's much more comfortable than the hospital hard sided ones..... I couldn't have spent 24 hours in one of them because I'd have had a dead bum
About 3 weeks before baby is due the midwife bought a homebirth pack around to my house than contains everything that the midwives would need for the birth.....plastic covers, gloves etc etc. I'd also had a prescription of pethidine from the GP that could be used if I needed it but I knew that if I used than then I wouldn't be able to use the pool. I had everything at home apart from an epidural!!!! On the day of my labour I had two midwives with me for 15 hours and they bought the G&A with them and were really really brilliant. The baby was monitored every 15 minutes and i was pretty much left to my own devices with them just offering support and advice. Poppy was born at 12:28am and by 2am they'd cleaned up all for me and we were all tucked up in bed, a new family of 3
..... the only thing we had to do was clean the pool out the next morning but the midwife offered to do that too but my husband wouldn't let her!
It was a much better experience than I could have ever imagined and I loved it......I can't wait to do it again and I've got a pool at the ready when it does happen. I really can't recommend home waterbirths enough, it made my daughters birth the magical experience I always wanted I wouldn't even consider anything else now.
You're welcome to PM me if you've got anymore questions that I haven't covered in this post, good luck
Christine
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