Home Birth Supplies and Kit ~ Things You Need for Homebirth
One of the thing which comes to mind when planning for a homebirth is home birth supplies.
Yes, if you choose to give birth at home, you are responsible for your own child birth supply.
But don’t worry, they are easy to get and are not expensive.
Here are the list of your homebirth supplies :
1. wide plastic sheets or any waterproof fabrics to cover your birth area and to contain all the blood and birth mess. I bought two cheap shower curtains for this purpose, and they worked great.
2. big sanitary pads. Overnight pads available at grocery stores are fine.
3. blue waterproof pads which you can buy in sections dedicated for incontinent people. I used this to prevent blood stain on my bed while I was having a heavy postpartum bleed (i.e. the first 6 hours after birth).
4. warm towels and receiving blankets to cover your baby after birth. If you have a dryer, then you can run the towels and blankets in it during the last stage of labor. If not, then you can use a heating pad (often used for people with muscle pain) to heat these up.
5. homebirth kit or emergency birth kit. Usually you don’t need to purchase this because your midwife will bring a birth kit when she comes to attend your birth. If you are concerned that your baby may come too fast and you end up delivering a baby without your caregiver, then ask your midwife to give you the birth kit a few weeks before the birth. But if she doesn’t, you can prepare a box with these following items for your emergency birth kit: shoe laces to tie the cord, disposable gloves for your birth attendant or husband, scissors, nose bulb for suctioning mucus from the baby’s nose if necessary, alcohol wipes or alcohol and cotton balls to sterilize the scissors, and tissues.
6. olive oil for massaging your perineum if necessary.
7. flashlight, just in case your birth attendant needs additional light in order to massage your perineum or pull your baby while you are in awkward position.
8. camera and all stuff you need to make a keepsake.
9. newborn cloths, diapers, wipes and vaseline/diaper cream.
10. newborn socks, mittens and hats.
11. a bowl for placing the placenta.
12. your favorite gown for birth and after birth, towels, and underwear. Bathrobe is also good to wrap yourself after birth, especially if you have a water birth.
13. tissue.
14. birth plan and a hospital bag just in case you need to transfer to a hospital
15. carpet stain removal just in case you need to remove the blood stain from the carpet.
In addition to these, you may want to make sure that your kitchen is stocked up with non-perishable food for your ‘birthday feast’ and for having meals for a couple of days after the birth. It is a good idea to buy lots of canned and frozen food in advance, or make them yourself a few weeks before your due date.
If you are planning for a water birth, make sure that the birth tub is set up a few weeks before birth and make sure that you can get warm water quickly to the tub when the labor sets in. So make sure that the water hose does not leak, that hot water is available and that the water hose fits perfectly to the hot water valve.
Get your home birth supplies , emergency birth kit or home birth kit and practical preparation well in advance. Don’t leave it until the last minute. When I was pregnant with my first baby, I didn’t get everything ready on time. I thought I still had two weeks, so I was planning to do my final shopping to complete my child birth supplies that weekend.
Unfortunately, my baby decided to come out two weeks early. As a result, I never did my ‘final shopping’. Instead, my husband had to rush around to get things ready for the birth on the D-day. We never got the birth tub set up, so I ended up giving birth in my bath tub. He also had to get some newborn hats, socks, mittens, diapers and frozen food after the birth. Not much fun, is it ?
Prepare your home birth supplies in advance helps smooth things up during the D-Day.
Have a joyful homebirth.