✨Why is home a good place to be?✨

What ifs come up a lot in the initial decision-making for choosing where to give birth.

• 🏡What if the baby needs help?

• 🏡What if something happens to me?

• 🏡What if I need a caesarean?

• 🏡What if I want an epidural?

• 🏡What if I change my mind?

Usually all these questions assume that if you’ve chosen to be at home then you are stuck there with no help. This is not true!

Firstly, the majority of complications that can happen in labour have signs that they are going to happen (Not always). If you’ve chosen to have me there all those things that can go wrong are in my head so they don’t need to be in yours.

I routinely check up on you and the baby (if you are ok with it) to see if thing are still going well or not. I listen to the heartbeat, check your blood pressure and how the labour is generally progressing through your behaviour, movements and how you are feeling as well.

If anything is of a concern I will tell you what I have found and let you decide which option to take.

If I arrive to your house in labour and you’ve changed your mind then you can still go to the hospital.

If you wanted to have a pool but you hate it then you can stay in the bedroom/lounge/bathroom/kitchen. Wherever you want! It’s your house and you can do what you want there.

The most common reason that home births are transferred to hospital is for a long labour, this is not an acute emergency which results in going straight to theatre, it’s simply to go in and discuss a next steps plan with the obstetric team.

It really is usually a lot less dramatic than you’d think.

Often times a baby is born uneventfully in their home and after a couple of hours of monitoring I leave you in bed with your new family member enjoying cuddles and food coming back to visit the next day.