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.
All
Third Trimester articles are relevant to the UK medical health system
and may differ from the experience of having a baby in other countries.
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Last Modified: 08/12/2008
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