Tuesday 22 November 2016

34w6d midwife came to check out my house

As I mentioned before, I'm having a home birth with a midwife and doula. They came and checked out my house. We have two bath tubs, but honestly, I don't think I'll be spending much time in them. Not because I wouldn't love a water birth, but because it will be winter and Korean bathrooms aren't heated. Because, why would you heat a room where you get cold and wet? We have space heaters, but water and electricity don't mix, so I'm just afraid of what could happen.

Jinny, my doula, showed me how to do belly lifts from Spinning Babies in order to help the baby get in the right position. She also gave me a shopping list of things I should have in the house as well as the birth certificate we will fill out. I also have a birthing box of things to help me out during my labor.

My Birth Box
These are things that I think may help me during labor. I also have a box of items that my midwife told me to prepare for my home birth. Below are just the comfort items that I want to put in.

I also have a list on the wall of emergency numbers to call which include my hospital, the Korean medical emergecy number, my neighbor, my husband, some of his co-workers, his work, my midwife, and my doula. I also have our address in English and Korean and our building and door codes. I've given a copy to my midwife and neighbor, as well as my husband. But in a worse case scenario, if I go into labor and people need to be called ASAP, I can just point to that list.
  • Lip balm: your lips can get dry very easily
  • Hair tie
  • Head massager
  • Massage oils
  • Lemon and peppermint candy: to help with nausea or to suck on after vomiting
  • Water bottle with straw: it's hard to hold a bottle and tip it up to drink while you're in labor
  • Rice sock: sock filled with rice that you stick in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds. It's kind of like a hot water bottle except it easily stays where you put it.
  • Rebozo: long scarf that can help during labor. Discussed in Spinning Babies
  • Wooden spoon: used to tighten the rebozo for the hip squeeze.
  • Birthing ball
  • Spray bottle with water: for cooling me down during labor
  • Eye mask: to keep out the light
  • Knee high wool socks
  • Tunic and PJ pants 
  • Sports bra: so I don't have to photoshop any photos
What's not in the box
Since I'm having a home birth I don't have to worry about packing a suitcase for the hospital. My clothes and the baby's clothes will be right there for after birth. Same with toiletries. I don't have to worry about food since our kitchen is right here. As for music, I'm not sure if I'll want any, but my laptop is also right here. Same goes for cell phones and chargers. I made a birth box because these are things that I think I might want and if I want them, I'm going to want them now. 

I put in clothes that I want to labor in and know that chances are I'm going to be almost completely naked since labor is a work-out and I'm sure my midwife will crank the heat up Hopefully I'll be in a sports bra and have the long wool socks on but we will see.

More info
This is not part of staying pregnant, so I'm not including this in my fee breakdown. For more info, you can see how much this has cost, I also have a summary of dates, as well as my Rx protocol.

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