Emergency childbirth at home

Though this is a very very rare case (about 1 in 200 cases), you might consider studying up on what to do if you cannot get to the hospital for whatever reason. For peace of mind if not for anything else. Here are a few tips to help you deliver your little baby at home yourself.

This kind of a birth is described as BBA (born before arrival). What to do if you think you are having a BBA? Try and get medical and emergency help if you can. If you cannot, try and get medical help to assist you over the phone. If even that is not possible, keep calm. Keep the door unlocked so help/neigbour/family can come in. Get together a towel to dry and cover yourbaby, a blanket to keep your baby warm and a plastic bag to put the placenta in. Get the room warm as your baby will need to be warm after birth.

The thing you need to remember in order to help yourself keep calm, is that women are made to have babies, and babies are meant to be born. Your body will do all the work necessary. You can only help the process be less painful or quicker. In fact, the fact that you are having a BBA could be because baby is coming out faster because baby is finding it easy to come out!

If you get the urge to push, pant. 3 pants and 1 blow. 3 pants and 1 blow. 3 pants and 1 blow. Do this to delay the birth by a bit if you think help might be on its way. Another thing you can do to delay birth is lie on your left and bring your knees to your chest.

If this does not help, go ahead and push. Bring your buttocks near the floor over a towel to give your baby a soft place to land on. If your partner is there, ask him to be prepared to catch the baby.

Push till your baby's head emerges. Check to see if there is a cord loop round his neck. If there is, ease it over his head if it is loose enough. Do not pull on it. If you can't manage without pulling, leave it alone. Once the whole body of the baby is born get him dry and then warm. If he looks blue, rub him with a towel to stimulate his breathing. Breathe on his face and suck at his nose to get any mucus or fluid inside till the baby cries.

Leave his umbilical cord attached. There is no hurry to cut it. Keep your baby warm and cuddle him. Place him at your breast. This helps you produce the hormones that delivers the placenta.

Deliver the placenta (which may take from 20 to 60 minutes to deliver) almost like you delivered the baby.

Now wait for help to arrive. And congratulations for doing it on your own!