Woman's Plans to Homebirth on Rooftop Angers Neighbours

A woman from Queensland is outraged and confused after discovering her neighbour was planning to have a ‘natural home birth’ on their shared apartment rooftop.

The woman found a note from the neighbour in the apartment lift which detailed her plans to give birth on Saturday November 11 from ‘1pm till late’.

After finding the note, the woman took to social media to ask whether she was ‘over-reacting’, shares Daily Mail.

‘I’m about five seconds from flipping a desk and writing an angry email to our building manager,’ she wrote.

‘Like most city apartments we have a communal rooftop barbecue area,’ she wrote.

‘You can’t “book” it as such but most people will leave notes in the lift and let the building manager know if they are using the space for a party.

‘But I think this is ridiculous.’

The note read: ‘Dear lovely neighbours, just wanting to inform you my partner and I have booked the rooftop for our natural home birth from approximately 1pm till late on the 10th of this month.

‘We will do our best to keep the noise levels down and will of course clean up after ourselves. Any issues please feel free to contact me.’

homebirth note

The woman who found the note wrote to the building manager and asked about the legalities of such a proposition.

The bylaws state that communal areas can be used so long as they ‘do not impede on the peace and recreational use of other residents’.

Most people who commented on the post were against the idea of a public home birth and felt as though it would disturb the general peace of the area.

The note has since been taken down from the lift and residents are unsure whether they have been pranked or if there really will be a birth taking place on their rooftop this Saturday.

How would you feel in this situation?

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31 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 19 Dec 2022
    12:57 pm
How do they know thats when the baby is planning on arriving??

- - ella12 said
  - 11 Jan 2019
    1:26 pm
The whole thing sounds ludicrous to me.

- - nealsq said
  - 30 Nov 2018
    10:30 pm
I suppose they did give fair warning, though a birth rarely goes to plan with times, I wouldn’t be keen on having to see or hear it myself

- - MrsA said
  - 27 Nov 2018
    9:35 pm
Obviously a joke because how else would they know the time.

- - mom70876 said
  - 17 Nov 2018
    9:27 pm
so did the birth go ahead inthe end or not?

- - cherz said
  - 17 Nov 2018
    9:54 am
Just how do you plan a home birth for a certain time and date.
Maybe the residents should seek this woman out and ask some questions.
And if indeed it did go ahead (anytime on the roof top) maybe residents could be in attendance with party horns etc (through out the birth) oh just kidding or maybe not. lol.
- cherz replied
  
  17 Nov 2018 , 9:56 am
  ALSO would love a follow up story to this story (birth).
  - MrsMcD replied
    
    18 Nov 2018 , 3:02 pm
    
    That’s the first thing I though when I read this story. I find it very odd that you would be able to predict the date that you will give birth naturally let alone the time and I find it extremely odd that you wouldn’t have a natural birth if you are having a home birth. Either this is a joke or that mum has a very different expectation to birth and motherhood from reality.
- - mom185490 said
  - 16 Nov 2018
    8:53 pm
I would like to know what the outcome is to this story, I agree with the other comment’s. This is wrong on many levels. It would be a major inconvenience to the other residence, not to mention how uncomfortable using the roof top could make you feel after the fact using the roof area.

- - mom213011 said
  - 16 Nov 2018
    8:42 pm
How do you predict when you are going to go into labour??

- - tessie said
  - 15 Nov 2018
    9:22 am
This is wrong on so many levels. It’s very unhygienic and they do call them home births for a reason. Unless they live on the roof there is nothing homely about it. Also what if something goes wrong, are they going to clean up first before they rush to hospital? Hopefully it’s just a prank.

- - rachel1970 said
  - 15 Nov 2018
    6:36 am
Who on the rooftop, for all the world to see. Giving birth, I think is an intimate time. She is not considering the neighbours who probably don’t want to share her experience. Pretty inconsiderate I think.

- - curlytops said
  - 14 Nov 2018
    11:08 am
it must be a joke as if it is natural you would have no idea of the exact time and day of arrival.

- - littlehandsofmine said
  - 13 Nov 2018
    2:44 pm
Wouldn’t you want the experience to be private? It was private for me…

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 13 Nov 2018
    1:40 pm
Wow that’s a bit extreme and just plain weird. Also if it’s a shared space I would be wondering if it is even legal because I know that they do tend to crack down on home births as it is.

- - mom215581 said
  - 13 Nov 2018
    12:43 pm
Not hygienic or appropriate but may be a practical joke? I wouldn’t be happy about and would have probably done the same to contact the manager. Babies don’t arrive spontaneously unless you miraculously have a built in ejector seat? Lol

- - mom111059 said
  - 13 Nov 2018
    9:27 am
Interesting that they have a time frame for babies birth. Not sure babies work to schedule like that.

- - MuthaNita said
  - 12 Nov 2018
    9:16 pm
I think that’s highly inappropriate. Aside from the fact that she would be the farthest from the ground and thus help, a communal area is not for moments like giving birth. Do it in your home, in your private backyard but shared areas should not be used for something like this.

- - BellaB said
  - 11 Nov 2018
    6:57 pm
Um… I would be worried about things like hygiene in a common area… Blood all over a place people eat?

- - Ellen said
  - 09 Nov 2018
    7:46 am
You can’t predict a NATURAL labour, but when she goes into labour then & there indeed, I would come and watch with trumpet and balloons

- - tarabutler said
  - 08 Nov 2018
    10:11 pm
I would have laughed, its totally out of the ordinary but hey its the birth of a child, Awesome!
- mom93821 replied
  
  09 Nov 2018 , 7:30 pm
  It does sound like a prank – hard to believe you can predict a home birth will start at 1 pm!
- - Blossom said
  - 08 Nov 2018
    8:54 pm
If it is a shared balcony, they should have requested permission from the other person before even considering it. How can you predict the date and time of a home birth? The Mum would have to have medical intervention to know the exact time. I highly doubt the area is clean so there would be a high risk of infection. It is my understanding that a roof top is a communal area. Is there similar buildings next door? If so have the people in that been warned too?