A bit gutted :(

[Liz]

I also encourage the kids to be invilved both during the antenatal visits and at the birth. Check out my photos on FB you can see a 2 year old cutting the cord

LOL - you wouldn't believe it.. but that VERY thought popped into my head today as i watched my kids cutting off some of nanna's knitting wool LOL! I thought.. hmm.. i wonder if they could cut the cord! And it would mean a lot to me to have them at the birth. Tallon wasn't at Kayla's because of it all happening unexpected and he just stayed at the babysitters.. we thought we were just going for a checkup that morning because I'd been sick the night before and felt a few tightenings.

Thank you so much everyone. I've discovered today that my mum wouldn't really be terribly supportive of a homebirth.. but then I seem to have gone against all of her grains with most of the stuff I've done so far LOL.. so she's not opposed to it, just simply stated that she'd be worried if I did it. I have told her the benefits, and told her that I also want to clear things in my own mind as well by talking to a couple of midwives.

Maya - I rang Australian Unity today cos they have private midwife cover.. and with prior arrangement will cover a homebirth, but there's a 12 month waiting period Which is why I'm spewing I stopped looking into these options earlier. Oh well.

Pandora - no I haven't checked the latest fees and rebates for the OB. I'm actually figuring if I don't do homebirth, I might just go public with a doula.

TBH one of my main goals, if not a full on homebirth, is to just be able to labour at home and rock up at 10cm haha. My waters broke with Tallon and I ended up doing all my labouring in hospital, and of course with Kayla being prem I was in hospital the entire time too. So even just to do most of my labouring at home.. I'm assuming with the doula.. would make me happy

I think deep down it is what I want to do. I just need to allay those little niggling fears.. but then there's niggling fears for hospital too.. so I'm just a bit nervous all round to be honest! haha. I also feel like there's so much to think about at home.. where I'm going to do it.. how to mess-proof etc etc. But it really really does appeal. I would be pretty upset tho to plan a homebirth and have another prem I might be able to negotiate a 36 weeker at home.. but within myself I wouldn't like to have any earlier at home. My herbalist and I are onto it tho.. spoke to him today about whether he can help me get to term.

i know we can use the maternity payment, but that kinda needs to help out with a few other things too... will have to rethink all our carseats etc. I know it'd be well worth it, but money isn't something we can really ignore.

Thanks again everyone. so much to consider

And yes Alan - I think you deserve a nice Blue Mountains get away in January! LOL. Just squeeze in one birth.. you'll be right

[Smoke Jaguar]

The first time round I justified not following through with a HB because our house was too small. I was well over the myth that you need a big space by the time I had DD. I'm not a pacer! I had enough room. In the end I decided that for everything we had 'enough'
As for baby bonus, we could have used that money for immediate concerns, too, and what we needed we ended up procuring one way or another. If we didn't NEED it we didn't need it. Then I won a friggin organic Ergo and I knew providence was giving just a little bit back!
Don't worry anymore about the PIH - it's out of your hands now and there's no point stressing over it...plenty of other things to think about now

[Antheia]

Sorry i havent read the other replies, but here's what i think..

DS2's homebirth cost me all up of around $5700. This included antenatal, birth and postnatal ($4500), doula ($700), birth pool and other such things ($500ish). In the end, i did not use the birth pool (he came in the bath), midwives did not make it and doula did not make it. So half of it was pretty much wasted on nothing because he came within 2 hours from first contraction.

But i don't regret a single cent. The fact i could give birth a home (regardless if they missed it or not) is worth more than anything tangable.

With this bub, we are planning another homebirth with the same midwives. This time however they are charging me $5500 straight up, which i have already paid. This is because of 4 reasons. 1)they live 2hrs45mins from me, 2) we've moved farther away than last time so its a bit more, 3) i had to pay up front this time because unfortunatly they have had some women not pay in full after promised and 4) because i was doing shared care last time and this time i am paying them for every appointment.

We had to get a loan to pay for it this time.

There is a very high chance they will miss it again. However i have a different doula this time (due to our other one will have a newborn at the time) and she is a lot closer to us. But i still will not regret the money i have spent. Having free birthed (unintentionally) it doesnt really bother me if they miss it or not. But getting the antenatal and postnatal is invaluable. I also consider both to be very good friends of mine now. They think the way i think and i just clicked with them instantly. Each appointment goes for a few hours and it just does not even compare to the hospital system at all.

So those are my thoughts, and yes ultimatly it can just come down to not being able to afford it. Unfortunatly that is the way the aus government is hell bent on making it near impossible for us to birth at home. But most midwives can do a payment plan for you and some even let you pay with the baby bonus.

Goodluck in making a descion. *hugs*