Homebirth on pathway D/high risk

If you have an instagram have a look @betterbirthuk. The lady is very knowledgeable and talks a lot about homebirth, maybe even try and contact her. She’s not a doctor but my midwife recommended her to me and i learnt a lot from her. I did not have high risk pregnancies but both my babies were huge (1st 10lbs and 2nd 9.3lbs) and over 42 weeks overdue. But i trusted my body and natural instincts and decided to do it at home anyway. I did do hypnobirthing from the start of my pregnancy but apart from that i had completely unmedicated births just a bit of gas and air with my first baby during the 2nd stage of labour. Also really recommend the TENs machine! No tearing or complications and both babies came with one push because i was so relaxed being at home. I do think you should discuss with doctor to be able to make a proper decision, all depends on why you are high risk. Some of the things they go by are very outdated and have been proven to be wrong but are still being practiced.

I declined the gestational diabetes test because i knew it would put me in the high risk category and make it more difficult for a homebirth. Then my belly was measuring big so they wanted me to have extra scans and again were telling me to reconsider doing it at home. Finally, when i was overdue, even though i understand that they have to but the doctor was telling me my baby will die if i dont get induced😐. I just asked the doctor about castor oil and he said it safe to take but will upset my stomach. So i did my research and found a recipe for a drink called ‘The Midwife’s Brew’ which has castor oil in it. Both pregnancies i drank it at 42 weeks and went into labour within 2/3hours. Homebirth’s have priority for ambulances so if anything ever took a bad turn they would be with you very quickly. The midwife will check your blood pressure, body temp and listen to the baby’s heart beat very regularly. If anything seems off they would not allow you to go through with it.

Thanks that’s great to hear. With my first I gave birth in a midwife led unit about an hour after arriving with no tearing, so I know in terms of unmedicated/laboring at home I can do it (also a BIG fan of tens machine!). My risk is mainly around being high chance for pre-eclampsia/reduced fetal growth so in my mind if by full term I don’t have it and baby is fine then I should be essentially be considered low risk but have been told that they won’t change my risk pathway at that stage. I have to speak to a midwife consultant to get signed off as having been told all the scary stats if I want anything besides a hospital birth - so it will be properly discussed. But really nice to just hear someone who kinda went against the standard advice and got the birth they wanted. Will check out the Instagram person as well - thanks xx

Its very difficult to come across someone who doesn’t go down the regular route and can be a really lonely experience in way because you cannot relate and have a chat about it all. Pre-eclampsia is quite a scary risk and i dont know too much about reduced fetal growth but if it was me i would be contacting doulas and all sorts of natural birth coaches to get some information. See if anyone has experienced it or been at a birth where it was a risk. My second labour was super fast, only 1hr 20. The second midwife that was called out didnt believe i was in labour, I was in such a hypnotic state doing my breathing. Baby girl was very keen to come into the world and dropped so fast ended up having shoulder dystocia. I literally went from 3cm to fully dilated, waters breaking and body starting to push all within an hour. She was stuck at the chin after 2nd push so i held her there while i got out of the pool and onto bed for them to get her out. Midwife was so calm and professional

I was not worried at all. She popped her shoulder in with her fingers and she came out perfectly fine. I lost 700ml blood which was a lot but because I was fine within myself and baby too so they didnt send us to hospital. Only 3days later when the midwife came to check on us she told me how serious it all was and that my girls umbilical cord was blocked for 5mins but because i was calm and breathing i was able to concentrate instead of panic. They were so convinced i tore too and couldn’t believe it after checking me

What’s tens machines do you recommend guys? I’m planning a home birth and there’s SO many home birth pages on insta which are super useful xx

You can also hire them online. I only bought mine because i knew i’d be having more than one😄

I bought mine from boots. If you have a friend that bought one you can also buy replacement pads for them