How to Prepare for a Home Birth + Supplies Checklist

Home birthing is a beautiful, peaceful, and instinctual process that is very special for the home birthing mother and baby. In this post I take you through my home birth supplies checklist, some postpartum recovery supplies, and my reasons for choosing a home birth. This post is for the expecting mother and soon-to-be home birther, or any woman looking to learn about home birth. Enjoy!

Home birthing is a beautiful, peaceful, and instinctual process that is very special for the home birthing mother and baby. In this post I take you through my home birth supplies checklist, some postpartum recovery supplies, and my reasons for choosing a home birth. This post is for the expecting mother and soon-to-be home birther, or any woman looking to learn about home birth. Enjoy!

My Story with Home Birth

It was 2020 when I first found out I was pregnant with my first baby. It was the middle of the pandemic and at that time, hospitals were a pretty scary place to be. You didn’t want to go there unless you had a serious emergency.

So when I found out I was pregnant, home birth came into my mind. I also had several friends online who had many home births and their stories really inspired me. I wondered if I could do the same.

A few months later, I found out that not only are hospitals filled with sick patients, but they also weren’t allowing many people inside, even for a healthy birth. For example, my husband could be in the room, but no other visitors or even a doula or midwife.

Add to that one more limitation for me: the ability to film the birth. Back when I was born, my dad filmed my mom giving birth and I watched that video many years later. Today, many hospitals don’t allow that. I would definitely not be okay with someone telling me when I could or could not pull my camera out to film such a special event.

These were just a few reasons I started becoming interested in home birth.

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Why I Chose Home Birth Cont.

After more reading and research, I realized there were actually many more reasons to chose home birth than I thought:

Fewer (or no) Interventions

What is an intervention? A birth intervention is anything that is given or done to the birthing mother to help her get her baby out. Some common interventions are Pitocin (helps speed up contractions), membrane sweeps, epidurals, or non-medically necessary c-sections.

Then there are other interventions that don’t necessarily speed things up but they are still in the way of the birth such as fetal monitoring and cervical checks.

Now, sometimes there are medical necessities for these interventions, but in this blog post I’m referring to a healthy mother and baby who do not need any interventions.

What’s the problem with interventions? In so many cases, a mother is given Pitocin for example to speed up her contractions, which causes them to be so intense that she then needs an epidural, and the epidural causes her to not feel her baby’s position so she can’t figure out the right position to be in, which could lead to a stalled delivery and then a c-section. Now, could the mother have done the birth without Pitocin in the first place? Sure, and maybe she even wanted to. But because the hopsital staff recommended it, and probably told her that it was harmless, she went ahead and did it. And it may have ended up causing more harm than good for her and her baby.

This “cascade of interventions” as it is called can do so much more harm than good for both mother and baby. It’s kind of like in the drug commercials you hear “this drug may cause depression, heart disease, or diabetes”. And so you ask yourself, okay, so I might have lower blood pressure with this drug but now I have depression and need a drug for that, etc. Make sense?

All of that to say, if you are healthy and there is no medical need for an intervention, the birthing process will likely be smooth and healthy for you. So, staying at home is actually safer than you think!

More Personal Reasons to Chose Home Birth

• General fear / discomfort around a hospital setting. I don’t like being around sick people, needles, drugs, etc. Even though I recognize those things are necessary in certain situations, I didn’t feel like they were aligned with how I pictured my birth.
• Control over the setting and environment. Why would I be in a sterile room, on a foreign bed, with no access to my own clothing, kitchen, bathroom, food, etc. when I could just birth at home? To me, it was as obvious choice. The thought of having my own food and own furniture around me sounded great.
• I wasn’t planning on using drugs during labor or delivery. Again, I just have a fear and discomfort around the idea of drugs. I don’t even like taking over the counter drugs like Tylenol unless I absolutely had to. In fact last time we needed that particular drug, we didn’t even own it in our house and had to go buy it. So since I didn’t want to use drugs, I didn’t see a reason for why I would need to birth in the hospital.
• Postpartum at home sounded so much better than in a hospital. I wanted to be in my own bed with my baby for the first couple days after birth. Also, I didn’t want my baby getting any shots or pricks or anything medical for that matter after birth, assuming they were healthy of course. So being home allowed for a very peaceful and untouched postpartum period.

Thoughts After Completing Two Home Births Now

So fast forward to today which is September 2023 and I just had my second home birth last week (sharing the birth story on here soon!).

Choosing home birth for both my births was for sure the best decision I made for so many reasons.

Home birth allows your body to birth naturally, easily, peacefully, and completely instinctually. There is no thought of “when should we go to the hospital?” and there’s no risk of birthing in the car while you’re driving to the hospital.

With home birth, you can labor at home and for as long as you need. No one will pressure you to hurry up and deliver the baby, or offer you medications to speed things up. These medications can also result in more complications later on during the birth.

So after several years of studying home birth and completing 2 of my own, I believe home birth is the safest and easiest way to birth your baby. In fact, I was so peaceful during my last two labors and births, that both times the baby came so quickly that our midwife either made it just in time or didn’t make it at all.

With my last birth, the baby was caught by my husband in our bathroom. It was beautiful and quick, and the midwife arrived shortly after. I attribute this positive story to the fact that we were at home. Home! A place where I can completely relax, eat my own food and drinks, rest in my own bed, and recover in the sanctuary that I call home.

Quick Disclaimer

As I talk about how safe and peaceful a home birth is, I want to recognize that this was a success for me two times now because I had an uncomplicated pregnancy. I did extensive research into how to have a healthy pregnancy and health has been a #1 priority in my life in general since I was born. So I did everything in my power to make sure I was uncomplicated and healthy.

Unfortunately, in my opinion at least, our society doesn’t do the best job of teaching women how to be healthy before pregnancy. For many, the hospital is the safest and best option. Luckily, today there are some hospitals and birth centers who recognize the need to let woman birth naturally on their own without labor inducing drugs.

So I want to recognize that you can have a positive and beautiful birth in a hospital (all birth is beautiful!) but it just wasn’t what I wanted for myself or my babies. So, this blog post is my testimony that I wrote to encourage the next home birthing mom and help her prepare for her beautiful upcoming home birth 🙂

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission off items you buy at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon associate, I earn on qualifying purchases. See my full disclosure here.

My Minimalist Home Birth Supplies Checklist

When preparing for a home birth, the first thing you want to do is find a home birth midwife near you. I simply googled “home birth midwife” in my city and that’s how I found mine.

Your midwife will give you a list of items to have on hand for your home birth. So, start with that list.

The list I have below has my favorite items which include some recommendations from my midwife. After completing two home births now, I narrowed down my favorites and what I actually ended up using.

Washable Pads: I do recommend getting reusable pads instead of disposables, especially if you are a first time mom. That way you can reuse the pads to change your baby on, sleep on, set the baby down on, etc. After birth, you will have breastmilk leaking, there may be spit up, etc., so having these pads on hand will continue to give you benefit beyond just the birth of the baby. And, you’ll have them ready to go for your next home birth if you have another!

Mattress Protector: If you don’t already have a mattress protector, this is a good pick. Some people say just use a shower curtain or plastic sheet over the bed, but again, you’re going to want a mattress protector for postpartum as well. And a shower curtain is loud and uncomfortable to sleep on. So we purchased this one and it has worked great! It’s also OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certified which requires it to be tested against harmful chemicals.

Organic Cotton Towels

70% Alcohol: You will use this for cleaning towels, pads, etc after the birth. Just place anything with blood or stains on it in the washer and douse them with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and do 1 cold wash followed by 1 hot wash. Stains will be gone!

Black Trash Bags

Newborn Baby Footprint

Postpartum Home Recovery Kit

These are a few items that I like to have on hand for postpartum recovery.

Organic Cotton Pads

Perineal Cooling Balm

Breast Balm

Glass Spray Bottles: I keep my homemade baby wipe solution in these bottles, but they are also good if you have a perineal tear and you can just use hot water or witch hazel with essential oils, etc. I have used them for many purposes since my first birth.

Coconut Oil

Aloe vera Gel

Bath Tea Bags. These are great for postpartum recovery, for bathing baby, and just so relaxing as well. And, you can make homemade bath tea bags!

I also shared my minimalist newborn essentials in this video.

FAQ:

Why Choose Home Birth?

Home birth allows for complete freedom when birthing your baby. For a healthy mother and healthy baby, home birth is a very safe and beautiful experience. There is no pressure from hospital staff to birth on their timeline, and there doesn’t even have to be any fetal monitoring if you do not want that. You can birth in your own bed and use all your own bathroom products during recovery. Also, there’s no question of when to leave for the hospital, or risk of birthing your baby in the car. I could go on and on about all the benefits of home birth!

When Should I Start Preparing for Home Birth?

I would start preparing as soon as possible! Don’t wait until you’re pregnant to think about home birth. The more you study birth, read books, watch videos, and talk to women who have done it, the fewer questions you’ll have. I started taking birthing courses a couple years before I had my first baby because I wanted to understand the process. After a few years of reading and being a doula for my best friend’s birth, I felt completely comfortable birthing at home.

Do Home Births Hurt Less?

This is a funny question! All births are very intense and the pain is all relative. It is pain with a purpose. It’s not the kind of pain that you suffer from an injury or illness. This pain is beautiful and as long as you can keep relaxing, the pain will go through you like a wave.

However, if you have any tension, fear, or distraction while you’re giving birth, that can lead to stalling which can make the birth more difficult.

In a home birth, you have no distractions and can be left completely alone to relax. For a hospital birth, you have to get in the car, drive to the hospital, check in, get in a room, get hooked up to a monitor, talk to nurses, etc. The process is a lot more intense in a hospital than at home where you can just lay in bed until the baby comes.

So all of that to say – there is more risk in a hospital for the birthing mother to be distracted or kept busy while she should be relaxing. This could cause her more pain, which can lead to more interventions, and ultimately a more complicated or risky birth. In a home birth, the pain may be less because the mother has complete control over her environment and can give birth how she wants to.

I hope you found this helpful! Congratulations on your upcoming baby!

More Natural Pregnancy and Birth from the Homestead

Our First Positive Home Birth Story

Freezer Meals to Make Before Baby

Third Trimester Pregnancy Update & Thoughts from the Heart about Pregnancy

Homemade Postpartum Sit Bath

Minimalist Newborn Baby Essentials

Homemade Baby Wipe Solution

Homemade Baby Shampoo

15 Lessons Learned as a First time Mom

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Thank you so much for stopping by the Homestead!