Having your baby at home

For many women these days, delivering their baby at home is a welcome alternative to the more clinical route of hospitalisation. Depending on your medical history, you may be advised against home birth, if the doctors think there might be a risk to your baby or you during labour. When you choose too have a home birth, you need to find somebody who can provide you with your antenatal care. If this is not your own GP's practice, it might be another GP within your local area. The antenatal care you receive is often from a community midwife, often part of a team, who will be responsible for providing your care and helping you to prepare for the delivery, which she will usually be a part of.

If you opt to have a home birth, you will contact your midwife to join you when your contractions are coming consistently every 15 minutes (or faster) and when they last for a good minute or so. Your midwife, once she has established you are in labour, will come to your house to help you give birth.

Your midwife will be able to deal with a normal delivery (and can provide you with pain relieving drugs like entonox and pethidine), and is equipped with resuscitation and intravenous equipment just in case, but if there were a serious problem, you would be transferred to hospital immediately and your midwife will assess every home birth for its suitability as it progresses. If you did need to be transported to hospital, in response to a complication, your midwife will be able to arrange this emergency intervention.

Pain relief in a home birth
You can’t have an epidural in a home birth as this has to be administered by an anaesthetist, but there are a variety of other options.

Tens machine
Tens stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and the machine works by sending small electrical impulses into your body with every contraction, blocking the pain and encouraging your body to release endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers.
They can be hired before you go into labour, and are mobile, so are ideal for home births as they can be used anywhere except in a birthing pool. Ask your midwife or doctor about hiring one at your next antenatal visit.

Gas and air
Your midwife will bring canisters of gas and air with her if you think you will need them. These are portable and can be brought into your home.

Pethidine and meptazinol
Some midwives use these pain relief drugs for a home birth, but often they prefer more normal methods, because the drugs make the baby drowsy, so it needs more monitoring than usual. Ask your midwife about which pain relief drugs they use.
See Natural pain relief for more information.

Emergency Home Birth
Although most mums make it to a hospital, or are assisted at home by a midwife or ambulance crew, sometimes a baby will decide to come early whilst you are at home. If you think your baby is coming early, call a friend or neighbour who lives nearby, as this is not the time to go it alone.

Phone your midwife or GP straight after, and phone 999 and ask for an ambulance. Tell them clearly where you live, how many weeks pregnant you are and that you think your baby is coming. Unlock your front door so that when help arrives, they can get to you easily. All emergency crews are trained in emergency childbirth procedures and can talk you or your friend through every step.

See Emergency Home Birth to read up on what to do if your baby comes whilst you are at home.

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.

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