To a birth!
What does the midwife bring in the birth bag?
During your pregnancy you get to know all our midwives when you come in for a check-up at our practice. When the time comes for you to give birth, one of us comes to your home. Or to the location where you want to give birth. And wherever that is, we bring everything with us in a birth bag. A big, heavy bag with everything needed for your delivery and to provide acute care. At your home, in a birthing center and, if necessary, even on the road.
Mobile mini-clinic
You can safely call our birth bag a mobile mini-clinic. Everything you could possibly need for a home birth is in it. Oxygen for you or your baby if needed, medication like oxytocin which we use if the placenta needs to come out faster. But also all the materials to cut, suture and of course to numb.
Birthing stool? We simply bring it along!
Did you know that we also always have a birthing stool with us in the car? Maybe you don’t know yet whether you want to use it or not. But if during labor you want to try whether a squatting or half-sitting position feels more comfortable? Then you can. With a birthing stool you get a more natural position that many women find more comfortable. It also creates more space in your pelvis, less pressure on your lower back and gravity helps a bit when you’re pushing on a birthing stool.
Prepared for any situation
Of course we want every birth to go smoothly and without complications. And fortunately, in practice most births do go that way. But if something does happen, we are trained and prepared for it. In the birth bag we have, among other things, materials to manage bleeding, to insert an IV and to provide all sorts of acute care. And if an ambulance needs to come? We’ll call it and can provide the necessary medical care until the ambulance arrives.
What you still need to arrange
Our bag is well stocked, but we also need items that you must arrange beforehand. Make sure you have a maternity package at home and that your bed is raised on blocks, even if you’re not sure whether you want to give birth at home. If you would like to give birth in water, you must arrange that yourself in advance. What you need to do for that, you can read in this earlier blog of ours about the water birth. Or ask us about Bevalcentrum Zuid in Amsterdam. There we have birthing pools and there is also laughing gas available that can be used as pain relief or for more relaxation during contractions. Want to see what it looks like there? Every Tuesday evening from 19:30 to 20:30 you can take a tour at Bevalcentrum Zuid. Sign up in advance via info@bcz.evaa.nl. That way they can inform you if a birth is in progress, in which case the tour will not take place.
A complete overview of what you yourself need and can arrange before giving birth can also be found here on our website.
Want to meet first?
Before you meet us with the full birth bag, you of course get to know us. And that can already happen at our midwifery practice. We are located at 2 locations in Amsterdam-Zuid: Churchill-laan and Willemsparkweg. Shall we meet? Then call us and make an appointment, we’d love to meet you!
