Giving birth

I was told about raspberry leaf tea too!It tastes vile but if it works why not?I was all ready with a hired Tens machine till my daughter turned around and I had a c-section at Queens Park;it was fine and I would heartily recommend it;the staff there are fab! :)
 
Yes course they do! But not as good as Lettie!!
If you want a midwife at a home birth, it costs a hell of a lot of money. In the hospitals there are midwifes, what's missing is the anaesthetic - you have to go through the pain no matter what, unless you pay for a private clinic, where you can pay between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds for the birth.
Don't knock the NHS!! you don't you're born in England!!
 
I had a compleatly natural childbirth with my first baby Joe. Just held on to the bed head and screamed the place down.
Just like a bad case of constipation.
You'l sail through it girl.
Dont forget to post us some piccy's
 
It's actually cheaper for a home birth in England, than a hospital birth. Less drugs, no doctors, no hospital stay etc. I'm actually on call for one now (mobile at the ready) Don't know how I'd stand legally delivering a baby in Italy. Every year in the UK Midwives have to register their intent to practice and be specific about where they are going to be working, so if you change areas half way through the year, you have to fill out another one. Just done mine for East Lancs. Even if I were to accidentally catch a baby in another area, while visiting or shopping, I would have to contact the nearest supervisor of Midwives and fill out an intention to practice for that area. It helps to stop people practising illegally, as it is illegal to deliver a baby in the UK (intentionally) without a midwifery or medical qualification, you can be taken to court and fined apparrently!!!
 
I don't think that's a problem here Lettie. Mums have the right to deliver alone if they want, so a midwife could be just a friend helping you out.

Tealeaf, it's not that anaesthetics are illegal here, some regions do have the epidural, in fact if you have a c-section, it's practically an epidural they give you. The reason they don't have anything here in Bolzano is that 1) they say they don't have the resources to have an anestaetician available for all those that want epidurals, as they have to monitor the mother right thrugh labour, so it's costly. and 2) for principle - they believe that it is worse to give gas and air and have the mother lying on the back - childbirth is a natural process and they let the mother keep control of the whole situation, you can walk round, go in the bath and do what you want, but you have to concentrate, and some drugs literally drug you up and take away this mental power.
In some ways I agree with them, I am always for the most natural remedy, but never having been through labour, I'm afraid, and the things that niggles me most is not having the choice because, knowing myself, I wouldn't ask for anything anyway, I'm pretty strong, but I would at least like to know the option is there.
 
Being mobile is the best way to be, for our ladies who use gas and air, they can still be mobile and are pretty much encouraged to be, unless there is a problem where we need to monitor the baby, growth retardation for example. We even let them use entonox (gas and air) in the pool, and haven't drowned anybody yet, but if they are in the pool they are not allowed narcotic drugs, as they take away control and make you drowsy.
The epidural, on the other hand, completely takes away mobility, drops maternal blood pressure (and in doing so affects the baby's heartrate) so the mother needs to be on a monitor throughout, and needs close supervision. Hence the furore in the media re. shortage of Midwives, saying that procedures such as epidural are still being done when we haven't enough midwives to look after them. As far as I'm concerned, this is completely true, so if anyone out there fancies doing their Midwifery training, drop me a message, and I'll tell you how to go about getting in. It's currently a 4 year degree course. When I trained, I had to do 3 years nurse training and then a further 18months to specialise in midwifery
 
I went for a home birth second time around it was brilliant very relaxing with no need for pain releif until they broke my waters and I had meconium in them the midwife said I could still deliver at home but I decided to hold on, the ambulance men came and I was in rather a delicate position with baby's head on its way and they had to get me form the bedroom to the ambulance outside. I held on though and hid under a cover on arriving at Queens Park but baby very nearly came in the lift up to the labour ward. I had a beautiful little girl.We still laugh now about the colour of the ambulance mans face ... id thought they'd seen alsorts and I haven't been put off having a home birth again and would recommend it to anyone even though I didn't quite manage it.
 
Although woman have and still give birth completely naturally at home, we have been brought up to think that you can only have a baby at the hospital. I think I would probably like the security of knowing I was in the best place if anything went wrong, although I would definitely opt for a single room rather than a ward afterwards (if I have the cash when the time comes!). Epidural's sound quite scary - I know giving birth would be painful but I would rather be in control of my body. Also I have heard tales of when epidurals go wrong - not nice.
 
Home births are lovely when everything goes to plan. We have strict criteria for who is suitable and who is not. Everything has to be completely normal, including the mother's health prior to pregnancy, previous difficult births ie Caesarians are not recommended to have home birth. Funnily enough, a lot of people who want home birth do so because they have had a previously difficult birth in hospital. The Obstetricians usually try to talk them out of it and then wash their hands of them, because if the birth is not in hospital, they do not have to attend it. The midwife cannot refuse to attend a woman in labour wherever she may be, we will transfer to hospital in an emergency, but if the woman refuses despite all explanations to come to hospital we cannot make her. As long as she understands that if there is any adverse outcome, then she hasn't a leg to stand on if all medical procedures to prevent that outcome were followed (and they usually are). 2 midwives will attend a home birth (the GP's round here will have nothing to do with them) One midwife is usually very experienced at home birth and has usually had a lot of experience on delivery suite. The 2nd midwife may have had experience on delivery suite, but may never have attended a home birth (it's the only way to get experience). We do it a bit differently at home and it's really nice, but to be honest working full time and doing on call at night is knackering me at the moment. One of our home births delivered last week, and I have another due in a fortnight...
 
Wouldn't recommend an epidural it was the worse experiance of my life.
Ended up using gas and air has well due to the fact that I couldn't have a top up coz the anethatist went home.
 
Well Jo I hope you feel a bit more at ease now - but everyone's advise has put me off for a while!
 
Right that's it, I've decided - I've finished information gathering and I've decided I'm going private and to hell with it! You lot have scared me to death.
The deal is this. I try a natural birth with a water bath and homeopathic pain relief whilst listening to relaxing music. If that doesn't work I go for real medicine, like the stuff you take for period pains, and if I'm still too soft, I get an epidural. And if the baby refuses to come out after all that time, I get a cesarean.
Hope it doesn't go as far as the cesarean, cos that'll burn a whole in my pocket, but I've decided - it's worth every Euro!!
Ps. I'm well into the rasperry-leaf tea - I have a cup every night before bed!
Thanks everyone for your advice, watch this space....
 
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