How We Had A Home Birth In Our RV
Our RV homebirth story.
In 2021 we bought our first RV, moved out of our apartment, and starting traveling full time. We spent an amazing year exploring and working our first seasonal job at Lajitas Golf Resort in Big Bend National Park before we decided it was time to extend our family and add on another traveler. All while continuing to RV.
We got set up at Lake Powell Resort in Page Arizona for our second summer of seasonal work which gave us Flagstaff, AZ and St. George, UT as the closest midwifery services ( Page didn’t have any ). We found a great place that specialized in home births with a large staff and office out of Flagstaff called Womancare Birth & Breastfeeding. Once we got the plus sign, we gave them a call and had a hour long video consultation to see if we were the right fit. We explained our living situation to see if it would work out and turns out they have delivered babies in RVs before! How cool. We immediately felt at ease that we would have the type of care we wanted and it worked with our unique lifestyle.
We got pregnant in July and had our first appointment in August at about 10 weeks. By this point full nausea had set in and I was feeling pretty lousy. We took the 2.5 hour drive to Flag, stayed 2 nights at Woody Mountain Campground, had a 4 hour initial appointment where we got the scoop on all things pregnancy, midwifery and birthing at home, then drove back to Page. We did this once a month until the season ended at Lake Powell and we moved closer to Flag. We enjoyed these monthly getaways because Page was very hot and Flagstaff was much cooler so it was a nice break from the heat.
However as the pregnancy went on, we started to doubt if our current no slide 30 foot travel trailer would be big enough for a baby let alone a home birth. So we started the search for a larger travel trailer. This also meaned we needed a bigger truck. What are the odds we would find a reliable truck and RV in a matter of a few months? Apparently pretty good because just one month later Mike came back from St. George Utah with a 2019 Diesel Ram 2500! Woohoo! We were jazzed and anxious to find our next trailer.
So we are now in October. I am about 4 months pregnant, the season is about to end at Lake Powell and we are heading to Lazy Days Tucson to pick up our new 2023 Grand Design 3210BH. Mike did most of the deal on the phone and through email with our salesman Ron so when we showed up it was a pretty easy swap. A couple signatures and some back and forth moving our stuff and we were in our new RV, and it was BIG! I was still feeling pretty nauseous most of the time so this felt like a breath of fresh air.
After wrapping up our time in Page and getting our new RV we decided to stay 3 months at Distant Drums RV Park in Camp Verde, AZ. It was only 45 minutes from Flagstaff and a good deal cheaper for RV parks. Mike found work near by in Sedona and we continued our prenatal visits and birth classes from there. The RV park had a gym, laundry, and they accepted packages so we were able to do a small registry which was very nice.
February came very quick and I was due in March. So we moved the remainder of our time to Village Camp RV Resort just outside Flag. This would be our first time winter camping and Mike was a bit nervous about it. And rightly so because the day after we got settled into our site it snowed for 3 days. 36 inches later and Flagstaff hit a record for most snow dropped in a period! It was quite the sight but a lot of manage to make sure our rv stayed in good condition.
By now our prenatal visits were every week until our baby was born. Our midwife started to bring her birth pool and other supplies over so it would be ready on birth day. At first we didn’t think a birth tub would fit in our living space but we tested it out and it fit perfect. We were ready for our baby to come.
Once I went into labor and my contractions became hard to sleep through we gave our team a call and they headed over. We set up the birth pool and started filling it with warm water. Our team got to our place with even more supplies and used our bunkroom to set most of it up. I didn’t move around a whole lot during labor so the space we had in our RV was enough. I ended up giving birth on our bed and they did the complete newborn check up right there. Our girly was in 100% good health. Once they made sure we were all good they packed up all their stuff, broke down the birth tub and locked the door on their way out. There was nothing for us to do but relax with our baby.
Our midwife came back the next day and on day 3 for at home check ups which was so nice. We stayed at Village Camp RV Park until our daughter was 4 weeks old for a few more visits then headed back to Page for Mike to start the season at Lake Powell.
Tips for having an RV homebirth.
Research midwifery services available and see who you might like to go with before becoming pregnant.
You can be located further away for the beginning of pregnancy while visits are once a month if you don’t mind taking monthly trips.
Get a tankless heater if you can. This was so helpful for filling up the birth tub and overall showering after birth.
Make sure the RV Park office accepts packages without a fee that way you can do a registry.
I hope you enjoyed our story how we had a home birth in our RV. I’d love to hear if you’ve had one or plan to in the future.
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HEY THERE, WE’RE MIKE, DEANDRA
A family of 5 adventure seekers traveling the U.S in our 37 FT. travel trailer. We share our life on the road and travel guides to our favorite destinations.
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Our RV home birth story.