If you are thinking about having a home birth, you NEED to read this! I wish I had thought of some of these things before I had my son at home.

I’m sure you’ve heard about women getting their hospital bags ready several weeks before the due date. However, with a home birth, there is a lot more to do than just packing a bag.

I forgot several things that would have made the birth experience a lot better, so I have put together a list of things so others don’t make some of the same mistakes I did. He also came two weeks early, so I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked to be.

And let’s be honest, it’s also a reference for me to come back to when I have future children.

Photographer

We didn’t have a photographer at our son’s birth, and that’s the main thing I regret. Whether your baby is born at home or in the hospital, make sure someone is specifically there to take pictures.

It doesn’t even have to be a paid professional. We didn’t have money to pay a professional photographer, so I would have been just as happy with my sister taking them, or even a close friend.

My mom was behind me when my son was born and she did happen to get one picture of me holding my son in my arms for the first time. I adore the picture with all my heart, but it’s not a picture I would post on social media or put into a scrapbook.

I also wish I had a picture of my husband holding our son for the first time. The few people that were there (my midwife and two of her assistants, my mom, and my grandma) were busy doing things, so no one even thought about pulling out a camera.

Trust me, you will want these precious pictures!

Food in the Fridge

Having a baby usually takes a long time, and people get hungry. It’s nice to have food prepared or even just some snacks for your midwife, doula, or anyone else at the birth.

My midwife and her assistants showed up at our place at about 9:30 pm and my son wasn’t born until 8:35 am the next morning. We didn’t even have bread for them to make toast with because we hadn’t gone grocery shopping yet that week.

Peri Spray

This is honestly something that everyone needs if they have a vaginal birth! It’s a homemade spray to use during crowning, after urinating post birth, and to ease discomfort from any tearing.

If used during crowning, it helps the baby’s head to not bruise as much. It also helps your skin to stretch and not tear. I used it and only tore a little bit – not even enough to stitch up.

After the birth when you urinate, it can sting a little bit. I would rinse afterwards with a peri bottle of warm water and then use this peri spray. The stinging immediately stopped! It was a lifesaver.

I got the recipe from the book Essential Oils for Pregnancy, Birth, and Babies by Stephanie Fritz. It’s 20 drops of frankincense essential oil, 20 drops of helicrism essential oil, and the rest is fractionated coconut oil. I put it in a 4 oz glass spray bottle.

If you make this recipe, make sure you are using Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils. That means that it is 100% essential oil and no filler. The cheaper brands you can buy in a health food store are mostly filler. The CPTG brands are more expensive, but they are pure and last a long time!

If you’d like to know which brand of essential oil I recommend, email me at heather @ graciouslyblessed . com

Straws

Straws are actually really helpful during labor and after the birth. Contractions make you want to sit/stand/lay in all kinds of weird positions, so straws make it easier to drink your water without having to sit up.

It’s also nice to have them for after the birth as well because trying to sit up can be painful after all you’ve just gone through to have your baby.

Plastic Sheet

This one seems obvious, but it’s something you don’t want to forget! We got ours just at the dollar store and it held up just fine for several weeks.

Not only did it help with any fluid leakage from me, but it also was nice when we had our son in bed with us. He wet through his diaper quite a lot in his first month, so it was nice to know that our mattress wasn’t getting ruined.

I always thought plastic sheets would be uncomfortable, but they’re really not because they are so thin and go under your normal fitted sheet.

So there you have it! I hope this list has given you some new ideas.

If you have any other ideas of things you need to have at a home birth, please let me know in the comments!