Birth at Home or a Hospital – The Choice is Yours

We expect to leave you with 1 bag of laundry and 1 bag of garbage.  There are a few simple steps to protect your floor and mattress.  Your midwife will do a home visit between 36 and 38 weeks of pregnancy if you are planning a home birth and guide you on how to prepare your home. Most women who have had home births are amazed by how little mess is left after the birth.

Supplies – Home Births
(PDF for print: Supplies for Home birth)

Everything on the list for Labour and Hospital Births
(PDF for print: What to Pack for a Hospital Birth)

• 1 roll of paper towels
• Disposable plastic container with lid (large ice cream container size) for placenta
• 2 large containers (laundry basket, box or pail) lined with garbage bags (one is for laundry and one is for garbage)
• Flashlight or movable lamp
• Portable space heater to ensure a warm birth place, if necessary
• Unopened bar of soap or soap dispenser for midwives to wash hands
• Large mirror to watch birth, if desired
• Electric kettle or slow cooker for preparing hot compresses
• 10 clean wash clothes for hot compresses
• 6 clean bath towels or 10 — 12 receiving blankets to dry baby right after birth (likely will get soiled)
• Receiving blankets for baby
• Package of “home birth supplies” that your midwife gave you

Preparing the birthing room and bathroom

Make the bed with clean linen.  Cover the clean sheets with a shower curtain or heavy plastic drop sheet (this is to protect your mattress during the birth).  Cover the plastic layer with clean older linens – bottom and top sheet (these may get stained).

The bath tub should be cleaned and well rinsed in early labour as you may want to use it.

Prepare a bag for baby and yourself with clothing, diapers, pads, etc., in case we need to go to the hospital.

Midwives will bring oxygen tanks for mother and baby, mechanical suction and other equipment for resuscitation of a baby, heating pads to warm up baby blankets, intravenous fluids and tubing, equipment and materials for suturing tears, medications for postpartum hemorrhage (heavy bleeding), the baby’s medications (vitamin K and erythromycin eye ointment), birthing stool…

Some women feel more relaxed and comfortable in their own environments.  They appreciate not having to leave their home in the midst of strong labour.  They have access to their own food/kitchen, clothes, bath/shower, and bed.  They feel that the increased privacy also allows them to move more freely in their own environment.  When women feel safe, supported and in control, their labours are perceived to be less painful and may be faster.

By choosing a home birth women are less likely to have an epidural or other medical interventions and it is less likely for them or their baby to have an infection after the birth.

Some women choose to birth in water as they find that water helps them to cope with contractions.  Some prefer to labour in water and birth outside the tub while other women want to birth in the water.  An appropriate tub for birth is deep enough for the belly to be submerged fully in the water and allows the midwife access almost fully around.  Waterbirth is not available at the hospital.  You can read more about waterbirth at the following link and discuss it with your midwives.

Most reasons to transfer from home to the hospital are not emergencies.  Your midwife is a specialist in normal and is often able to detect problems or challenges before they become emergencies.  Your midwife will monitor you and your baby closely during your labour and immediate post-partum.  Reasons for transport include slow progress, need for pain medication, meconium when your water breaks, high blood pressure or fever.  Non-emergency transfers to the hospital are usually done by car.

In a true emergency, an urgent c-section may be necessary.  We recommend being no more than a 30 minute car ride from a hospital with c-section capability if you are planning a home birth.  We prepare for emergencies ahead of time.  In an emergency, midwives would call an ambulance and the hospital to allow them to prepare for our arrival there.

• Food and drinks for laboring woman and her support people
• A couple of packages of Maxi pads–overnight size
• Portable music player (if desired)
• Clothes to labor in if you prefer not to wear a hospital gown
• 1 or 2 pillows from home (not in white cases)
• Hairbrush, toothbrush and paste, other personal care items as desired
• Bathrobe and slippers
• Change of clothes for going home (comfortable and loose)
• Camera / video camera
• Visa or cash for parking
• $20.00 (refundable) for a pass for 24 hour access for your support person at Guelph General only
• Health card and additional health insurance information, if applicable
• Don’t forget your manila envelope
  

• At least two hats–one soft one that we can put it on the baby right after
• birth
• 2 diaper shirts
• 2 sleepers
• Socks
• Blankets
• Car seat
• Diapers
• Extra warm clothing and blankets for winter births
• Vaseline or olive oil for baby’s bottom

• Gravol and Tylenol – for rest in early labor
• Digital oral thermometer
• Covering to protect carpets/mattress–consider plastic drop sheets or shower curtains from the Dollar Store
• Extra pillows
• Bendable drinking straws
• Massage lotion or oil
• Lip balm
• Hot water bottle or rice bag