Home Birth Supplies

All right, since so many of you have said you're interested in the contents of the home birth kit and my other supplies, I thought I'd go ahead and put it on here. I don't think there's anything too gross, for both of my male readers :) But I won't be offended if you just skip this post.

From In His Hands Birth Supply:
16 Chux Bed Underpads, 23x24 (you know, those big blue absorbent sheets they have at the hospital?)
12 Chux, 23x36 (not sure why the two sizes)
1 Peri Bottle (you moms know what this is!)
1 Povidone, 4 oz (I think this is an antiseptic cleanser)
1 Lube Jelly, 4 oz (yikes!)
12 Gauze Sponge, 4x4, 12-ply (not sure what this is for)
1 Scrub brush, dry (to wash/comb baby's hair)
1 Bulb Syringe (snot sucker for the baby)
2 Plastic Cord Clamps (for the umbilical cord, duh)
6 Alcohol prep pads
1 Quick Heel Lancet (I think to draw blood for the newborn screening test)
1 Herbal Cord Care, golden seal and Oregon grape (at the hospital they use alcohol, this is just a homeopathic option)
2 Infant hat
2 Stretch briefs, unisize (Moms, you know those crazy mesh undies you get at the hospital? Well if they're your thing, you can order as many as you want from this website :)
1 Tape Measure, infant
a bunch of sterile gloves
2 Plastic backed sheet, 40x72 (who knows?)
Vitamin K, .5ml ampule, 8" needle (for the baby's Vitamin K shot at birth)
And the best part...
2 flexible drinking straws! I think this one is funny but even funnier is the fact that they include them for free.
So the whole kit costs about $70, not too bad.

There's not too much weird stuff in there but when I was looking online to see what else they had I found some scary/strange things. Curious?

• Organic Ultrasound Gel, in case conventional is just not good enough for you :)
• Enemas (!!!!!)
• Donut Ring (Lord, may I never need one of these!)
• baby t-shirts that say "I'm special, I was born at home!" Okay, I'm about as big of a home birth advocate as you'll find but even I think that's a little obnoxious.
• Bed pan
• Water birth net (to remove debris from the water birth tub - which if you know me well you know that's something I'd never need. Baths do not relax me, I think they're disgusting, and I can't imagine being in a tub or pool during labor.
• SHOULDER-LENGTH GLOVE!!!! When I first saw this one it totally freaked me out. I couldn't imagine why anyone would need a shoulder-length glove but then I figured out that it was to fish stuff out of the pool. Glad it's not for use on a laboring mom!!!

All right, so that's the birth kit stuff that's more medical. Now here's the list of other required items that I need to get on my own.

• 2 older pillows, 4 older pillow cases, 2 sets of cotton sheets (fitted and flat), 2 older blankets
• 6 large flannel-backed vinyl tablecloths (2 for bed, 4 for floor)
• 6 bath towels, 4 hand towels, 6 wash cloths, 2 beach towels
• 1 pkg baby wipes and 1 roll white Viva brand paper towels
• 2 large bowls (for the placenta and not sure what else)
• 2 gallon ziplock bags
• 4 plastic grocery bags
• 1 kitchen-size plastic bag-lined trash can with 4 extra bags and 4 large black outdoor trash bags, 1 plastic laundry basket
• crock pot and small table to set it on and extension cord (Cindy, the midwife assistant joked that this is the 21st century version of "boil the water, the baby's comin'"! It's to make warm compresses for the pushing stage of labor.
• Digital thermometer with covers
• Flashlight with fresh batteries (A lot of women like to labor in low light, I guess that's what this is for)
• Duct tape (Hmmm...)
• Camera if desired
• Heating pad and extension cord
• 2 bottles of Recharge Juice by Knudsen, or equivalent (for after labor - like a natural Gatorade)
• Ice
• Chicken soup, eggs, bread, fresh fruit
• Red Raspberry Leaf Tea (I skip this one. Tea? Gross.)
• Medium-size table
• X-Strength Tylenol
• 1 new small bottle of olive oil (for the last stage of labor)
• Sanitary pads
• For Midwives: (This is my favorite part!) caffeinated coffee, 1/2 and 1/2, real sugar, food, a resting place (if needed)

For Baby:

• 2 cotton onesie undershirts
• 2 cotton night gowns or sleepers
• 4 cotton receiving blankets
• 2 pairs booties or socks
• 2 small cotton hats
• 1 baby towel, 1 wash cloth, baby shampoo/soap
• 24 q-tips (not 23, not 25)
• Newborn diapers (at least 1 pkg disposable, even if you're cloth diapering)

So nothing too crazy, in my opinion. Since we're already on the topic of home birth, I'll go ahead and answer a few of the most commonly asked questions about home birth (at least, most commonly asked of me).
How about the mess?
I have to admit, this was a big drawback for me for a while. I just thought, "I do not want to have a big mess in my house or be cleaning stuff up right after I have a baby, thank goodness for the hospital!" But I didn't clean up a thing when Finn was born and the mess was really no big deal! The midwives take care of everything. It was about 1 load of laundry, and nothing was ruined. There were also about 2 bags of trash (all the disposable Chux pads, etc.). And this was a little strange - they wrap the placenta up in about a million bags and put it in the freezer. There are some women who do things like plant their placenta or eat it (GAG!!!!) but most women just throw theirs away. Apparently it's technically considered a bio-hazard and therefore can't be thrown away in the trash, but we just kept ours in the freezer until the morning of our trash pick-up and then stuck it out there, wrapped in its million bags. So the mess was really a non-issue.

Didn't you miss being in the hospital and having the nurses help?
No way. When I was in the hospital with Maggie I barely slept because I was so anxious about Maggie. I was afraid someone would try to steal her and every time they had to come get her I was so worried that something would happen to her when she wasn't in my sight. I was also a little nuts about the whole "attachment parenting" thing and thought if I wasn't with her for every single minute that she would grow up to be a psychopath or something. I don't think she left our room for more than 30 minutes at a time, no more than 1 or 2 times. I really had an actual anxiety problem; it wasn't just new-mom jitters. But being at the hospital was so stressful for me.
When Finn was born Susie (my midwife) and Cindy (her assistant) stayed for several hours after he was born, taking care of both of us and making sure we were okay. They got us all in bed and then went home. It was great. Also, Grant's mom stayed with us that first week (it happened to be her school break so it just worked out that way. My mom came the next week.). I was able to rest so much easier in my own bed, with my own, regular house noises and smells, and no anxiety!

What about the possibility of this baby having Isovaleric Acidemia (IVA), like Finn? Won't that be a problem with a home birth?
This actually isn't a big deal at all. Even if Finn had been born in a hospital, we would have been home by the time his symptoms (lethargy, failure to thrive) showed up. We do have a 1 in 4 chance of this baby having IVA (in the general population it's more like 1 in 300,000) but we'll just take the baby to Vanderbilt when she's 6-12 hours old and have them draw some blood to look for the IVA. They'll be able to let us know in a couple of hours and we'll put her on the medical formula and supplements if it turns out she has IVA.

What if something goes wrong? Aren't you worried about not being at the hospital?
This one is kind of interesting. I think some people think since we lost Elle that we should be lined up at the hospital at 9 months pregnant, checking everything and making sure she's fine. But first of all, that's not really my personality, but the bottom line is, it didn't make any difference with Elle. She was born at the hospital and there wasn't anything they could do to save her.
But more generally to home birth, things don't usually happen like they do in the movies, where one minute everything is fine, and the next minute the baby's dying and they have to do a C-section to heroically save mom and baby. Typically there are signs long before a big dramatic moment, like mom's blood pressure keeps going up, or baby's heart rate isn't recovering well, so if Susie sees something that worries her, everyone goes to the hospital. When she has her hospital transfers (which do happen occasionally, and aren't the end of the world), it's well in advance of a true emergency. We're about 10 minutes away from the best hospital in town and we feel really comfortable with that.

There's (more than) everything you ever wanted to know about home birth! If you stuck with it for the whole thing, kudos!