Tell me about your freebirth...

[LimeSlice]

Not looking for opinions, arguments and debates, so don't bother replying if you are not speaking from some point of experience or professional capacity.

Simply want to hear from anyone who has ended up with either a planned or unplanned freebirth and what it was like, complications, when if at all you called ambulances or went to the hospital etc.

Especially if anyone has freebirthed VBAC....

Cheers!

[CinderToriella]

Excellent thread hun, look forward to the replys !

[Tegam]

We had planned a HB for DS and it all just happened too quick for the MW to make it. She arrived about 40mins after so that was a freebirth...

this baby will be a planned freebirth. We are expecting another quick delievery and just could not justify the cost when no one could possibly make it!

The decision to freebirth has taken a lot of twists and turns the past few months and i can get way more into it if you would like to hear all the ups and downs.

I have/am booked into the local hospital for ante/post natal care and will pop up there within 4 hrs of the birth to check bubs and my but other than that we are on our own!

[Mum2Romone]

we practically had a free birth, our midwife arrived two seconds before he came out and Hubby delivered him all by himself without instructions.... I pushed when i felt the need too. I think we could totally do it alone....
Though I'm sure if anything went wrong it would be very scary, though it's not like at the hospital they are really there anyway.... We had been asking for our midwife for hours and there wasn't a doctor in sight .....

[Mum2Romone]

Can't wait to hear your birth story Tegam

[Rpat]

I'm thinking about it (20 weeks pregnant, now) but DF isn't feeling comfortable. I am totally comfortable with it. I love reading freebirth stories.

[Pretty Butterfly]

Very interested in this thread!!!

I practically free birthed my last 3 in hossy, and if my births get any quicker, there is a massive chance I wont make it this time anyway....

Isaiah was a free birth, but obviously very different to what your asking about. My only concern with him was massive blood loss just after the birth, for about half an hour. Once the placenta birthed, all the bleeding stopped, so we didnt go to hossy. I showered and went to bed with my baby, and didnt go to hossy for around 6-7 hrs later.

My main concern if I birthed at home would be blood loss, but I have been assured that ambos carry the leg injection thingy. Providing all went well, i would have them come to check us over, but would stay at home.....

[Tobily]

A bit over a year ago I was working with a mum who was planning a homebirth with her hubby, a midwife and me as doula support. I lived literally two minutes away from the family, the midwife had quite a hike to get there.

As it happened, labour started with a bang just before peak hour - within an hour of her membranes rupturing her hubby was on the phone telling me to get there - NOW - mum was feeling pushy and the midwife had been called but with traffic she was at least an hour away. There wasn't even time for me to get my hubby home to watch our two year old, so I threw him in the car and sped around to her house. Plopped my wide eyed two year old on the couch beside the birth pool, and I took one look at mama and knew the middy wasn't going to make it. I held her hands and sat with her while her hubby caught the baby. Hubby was as calm as could be, so that was good. As soon as his head appeared it was beautiful and pink - in all the births I've been present at, I don't think I've ever seen such a rosy looking babe - and I just knew at that point that everything was going be ok.

A few minutes later the little guy was out and the midwife came running through the door in time for the placenta.

Things certainly didn't go as planned but it all worked out beautifully in the end

[Mildez]

(not speaking from a midwives point of view) A good friend of mine free birthed her DS. She knew she had super fast labours and was 200kms from the nearest birthing hospital (other hospital near by) she woke up at 3am as she felt like she needed to poo and within a minute her DS was out. By the time her partner woke from his sleep bubs head was out and he had time to roll over and catch his body all of a minute from the time my friend got out of bed. Her son was born at the side of the bed whilst she was standing. As he (Daddy) was not expecting it and the slippery little bubba was hard to hold he sort of fell to the floor and the weight of him split the placenta in half so half was torn away and the other half not detached. My friend lost a lot of blood well over 2litres which required a blood transfusion at the hospital nearby before been transferred to the main hospital. I think if it didn't happen the way it did there wouldn't have been a problem with blood loss. Just one of those things.

[Tegam]

Can't wait to hear your birth story Tegam

ME TOO but i look forward to the birth more hehe! How much longer do i have to wait

[Jas]

Hi,

Interesting thread, don't have any personal/professional info to add but not wanting to debate either so hope its ok I'm posting.

Tegam, just wondering if this is something you have kinda arranged with your hospital? Or if you just havent told them you won't be coming in for the birth?

Mildez, wow! What a birth story...that must have really been a full on experience going from asleep and pregnant to holding you baby that quickly and must have been so scary with the placenta tearing!

[kawazuki]

did you read my birth story hun for maree?
it was a free birth at home, we had the ambos on the phone as marees head popped out. they were there quickly but didn't make it till after.
no complications except shock.
i think mainly because it wasn't planned so i didn't have my self mentally prepared, i have ahd some anxiety attacks and weird dreams about it all.

if i was to do it again, id free birth again and be prepared, id have clamps and scissors and that ready to go.

[Tegam]

Tegam, just wondering if this is something you have kinda arranged with your hospital? Or if you just havent told them you won't be coming in for the birth?

No way that it is something arranged with the hospital, im in QLD and the health system is SO FAR BEHIND. Now if i was still in NSW im sure i would have been given support for my hugely quick births. But no sadly its been a battle every appointment to not be induced and to sit and listen to another lecture from some dr that im going to die if i birth at home. 2 private OBs and a public hospital later and they all agreed the only safe option for me and baby was an induction at 36weeks with steriods for baby.... scary bears!

[Tegam]

no complications except shock.

This was the biggest thing people went on about "how didnt i go into shock"?

well because i had had a rather quick one before and had been warned it would be even quicker next time, So i was mentally prepared as well as physically!

You poor thing, it must have/is a huge thing to process!

[Jas]

WOW! That is ridiculous that they wanted to induce you at 36weeks!

[Tegam]

One OB from inner city brisbane, one from the local private and ALL the public OBs ive seen at the local hospital.... Induction at 36weeks so much safer than dying at home....Im mean thats what i should have done if i cared about my baby!

[blessedatlast]

Tegam - Induction at 36wks.. That's insane .. Free birth or even HB is not for me, but the stories of them are beautiful and peaceful..

[LimeSlice]

Thanks everyone

Tegam - I would tell them to shove it too! How ridiculous!
Would love to hear all about your decision and how you got there, etc.

Kawazuki - No I didn't, I will hunt it down. So what would one need if one were to be 'prepared' for a free birth?

PB: Yep, I think the possibility of blood loss/PPH is my major concern if I were to birth at home...Having not had a VB the first time around, DH nor myself really have no idea as to what is acceptable loss and what is not.



Not the ideal situation I was hoping for, but DH (after initially rejecting the idea of homebirth, not for safety reasons but for practical ones) has now said "hey maybe we should have a homebirth"! lol
And after putting in 3 different enquiry forms to the Independent Midwife website thingy and having no response whatsoever, after having met and already sick of dealing with the hospital bullsh... I mean protocols...and the fact I have no intention of going to the hospital until I am already just about pushing if I did go, the notion of freebirthing is something I want to be 'prepared' for.

If I am still comfortable with it as I am now, it is something we will seriously look at. We are well and truly close enough to the hospital in an emergency, and I think if we were equipped both practically and informationally, then I can't see a real issue with it.