Home Birth Essentials…for under £20!

What do I need to buy to have a home-birth?

So, you’ve decided you want a home birth but you’re not sure where to start!?

Getting hold of few home birth essentials will help to ensure that things run smoothly. But, that doesn’t mean you need to run out to the shops and buy a tonne of things you’ll never use.

We spent about £20 kitting out our spare room for my home birth!  This is what we used:

This post may contain afflliate links. This means means that if you buy through my link I’ll make a small amount. It won’t cost you anything but I’ll be really grateful!

• Tarpaulin – Choose the room where you’d like the home birth to happen and lay out some tarpaulins. We found this the easiest and cheapest option for protecting mattresses and floors. They’re totally waterproof and more non-slip than the shower curtains we’d seen suggested a lot.

• Bed sheet and old towels – After covering the mattress in a groundsheet, put some towels on top and then a sheet over the top of that. This makes it more comfortable and stopped the plastic feel and noise though the sheets.
• Water jug – You really don’t want to get dehydrated. I was dizzy for hours after having my first. We made sure to keep a jug of water handy along with some glasses.
• Biscuits – The midwives will thank you. Ours had driven 40 miles to get to us as our local midwife was at another birth!
• Sacrificial pillow – If you end up having your baby on the floor you’ll need a pillow to prevent his/her head hitting the hard floor.
• Flexi Desk Lamp – I never thought of this one and we didn’t even own one! My poor husband had to hold a torch still pointing at my you-know-what for 30 minutes while the midwife carefully did my stitches. A Flexi Desk Lampwould have made things a lot easier.
• Anti bacterial wipes – Really handy for cleaning up afterwards. You’ve got a new baby so you need this to be as easy as possible.

• Sheet or soft towel for baby – make sure you have something soft and cosy to wrap baby in while you enjoy your first cuddles.
• Hospital bag – Make sure you pack a hospital bag incase. Births are unpredictable and you may be advised to go to hospital when the time comes. There’s also the possibility that your midwife may not be trained to perform stitches so if you require them you would need to go in to hospital.

You can read more about my home birth story in this post.