Home birth/water birth prep

HI ladies, we are planning a home water birth. Would love to hear from people who have done it & what sort of things we need to get to be prepared for this. I also have a soon to be 2yr old son so looking for thoughts on what people did with older siblings etc.

I know my aunty hired a birthing pool, but not sure how she filled it.

I'm planning a home/water birth too and the midwife has told me she'll be bringing everything, including the pool... All I need on hand is plenty of towells apparently!

thanks, i know i have to get the pools, and mw has said some old towels & perhaps a sheet or something for on the floor. Old that can be thrown out. my understanding is she will clean up etc. & the pool we will get will have a hose fitting to it. Just wondering when to get it etc. hopefully she'l give me an idea when i see her next.

Am thinking i want V here, but mum on call for when i need her to come & stay with him. Take him away when it gets too much, then bring him straight down once i'm a bit cleaned up, but as soon as!

dh knew i wanted a water birth last time (at the hospital) and was really happy for it. this time i talked to him bout the idea of having it at home meaning my almost 2 yr old could not miss out on mummy. I think it will help him cope as mummy is not going away for 3 days and coming home with a stranger. even tho he knows i have a baby in my tummy, i just feel that by birthing at home & staying at home it will help him adjust easier. I think i talked bout a it a couple of times with dh before he finally agreed. his concern was for the health of both baby and me. once i assured him mw would have everything needed (i may need antibiotics etc) then he was ok about it. now he seems to have no problem with it i don't think. it's something i wanna try and so he ok with it

thanks, that makes me feel a lot better about wanting Vincent around. i do think he would cope better

Thanks Two Shoes -- MW dropped off the pool a couple of days ago and apparently it takes 45 minutes to fill, so not sure how that works with timing/temperature etc... but we're going to have a trial run this weekend.

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

I had a home birth - unexpectedly - but I would do it again I think. We used about 14 towels, an oil heater to keep the towels warm, a tarpaulin on the floor where I was, a couple of buckets, and jugs of water (hot and cold) for me.    Other than that the midwives had everything they needed. Oh, and a couple of pillows for me to kneel on.

I looked in to birthing pools and from memory they generally come with a hose attachment to make them easier to fill up.

Helen21, both DH and I were against the idea of having a home birth but by the time the midwfe came to assess me at home I was already fully dilated. She gave us the choice of going to hospital or staying home and both DH and I felt right about staying at home. DH had the same safety worries beforehand but we didn't realise that a well organised midwife is set up to deal with (apparently) the first stages of a haemorrhage and same if the baby has breathing difficulties. I remember them bringing an oxygen tank in and it sitting in the corner just in case. Is it something you can decide on at the last minute? I could sense that my labour was going pretty well and that's why I felt comfortable - otherwise I would have gone straight in to hospital - if you can decide once things are happening I think that gives you the best idea.

The opnly thing I organised for my home waterbirth was my support people LOL!
My midwife brought over her birthing pool about 3 weeks before my due date, she also brought all the required linen & took it away after so that was easy....
I had my Mum & Grandma over as support people (coz Hubby isn't good with that kind of thing as he gets bored easily) & for my two boys who were 3 & nearly 2 at the time I had my sister over to care for them with Hubby's help.
Was really cool actually because I had the pool set up in my dining room, my boys were watching a video in my bedroom for most of the time and they would just wander out to give me kisses & cuddles & to be nosey LOL before heading back to the bedroom.