Ok, so which MNer gave birth in my campsite this morning? I have some questions....

[TorchlightMcKenzie]

like, how did you fill the birth pool?
How did you keep hot?
How did you empty it?
Did you also deliver the placenta in the bell tent?

And many MANY more!

And, can I meet you? Am also in bell tent with 7 week old!

Apparently it was in the Sun yesterday!

DS would be terrified.

Sorry - i think they are terribly self centred and entitled.

The part of me that is a folk music liking weaver (my looms for yarn though and currently being trashed ) loves the idea

Another part that has four kids and not enough sleep would hate that my precious break was disturbed

And a small part thinks she was attention seeking (planning it and then calling the paper)

But overall it's a very small thing for everyone else but a huge thing for them so wouldn't Allow the notes bits to really surface

Well, I hope I bring my children up to be a bit more robust than to be "terrified" or "freaked out" by a woman giving birth in their vicinity!

he has just turned 3 seeker - still a bit young to understand about shrieking and childbirth, i shall of course raise him to be 'robust' but there are limits....

I've been to folk week. I didn't stay the whole week, we are close enough to just drop by...I still wouldn't fancy someone giving birth in a tent next to me, though of course if it happened by chance that would be absolutely fine.

It's just the contrived bit that disagrees with me. Sorry.

I'm sure you are making a good job of having robust children, Seeker.

Not all of us do, whether by accident or just the way they are. I don't think it's something to judge parents for, not really.

i have always been very open with mine about childbirth, including that its painful. they have all seen resl births on you tube, tv etc and ds1 was there for the birth of dd and he cut the cord. it was an amazing experience for him.

in the big scheme of things this was one disturbed night for other campers. i would have explained to my children what was going on and nipped round to congratulate them once they were up for visitors :)

ah, looks like i thought i posted but i didn't.

a yurt birth sounds great.

listening to one probably doesn't, although some women make almost no noise in labour that doesn't seem to be the case here

this is the conflict.

Sorry seeker but sadly SN means most things freak my kids out and I refuse to say sorry for that.
Why would anyone think that complete strangers might want to listen to them giving birth is normal!

It doesn't really make any difference though how much people want to argue about it. I still wouldn't be happy if someone had a planned birth in the tent next to me without bothering to mention it. My 2.5 yr old wouldn't have cared much, but my 4 yr old would have been scared if she had woken up to that, its just the type of child she is. Im sure it would be easier if a choice was given so that she could be prepared for it at the very least. Its not someone else's choice to make when the whole thing has been planned in advance anyway. If you've already brought the birth pool then why wouldn't you mention it to the neighbours camping next to you. To think otherwise is rude and entitled.
But top marks for raising robust children seeker, really, absolutely superb, well done. You must be very proud.

good job none of you live near our old hospital, there were lots of houses nearby and it was an area where lots of people walked, despite the labour ward being up a good few floors you could regularly hear women in labour as you walked past! and a friend that lived nearby could hear them if she sat out in her garden or had her windows open.

the new hospital is out off a big ring road and no houses nearby but if you are outside certain parts of the hospital then you still hear the women in labour, they quite ofen have the windows open a bit and the nose carries i guess.

i wasnt particularly noisy in labour, i did curse a bit tho!

oh and i mooed like a wounded bison!

Yeah, but if you leave near the hospital and thats the norm, well theres no surprises then is there. Easy to prepare children for that.

It's
A folk festival in Thanet. The nights are already made hideous by drunken Morris men, inibriated accordion players, giggling teenagers, police sirens zooming past on their way to Margate and local larrikins driving past playing whatever music it is they play and screaming "wake up hippy cunts!"

You all seem to be imagining a peaceful meadow in the countryside with children gathering daisies while somebody strums
a lyre in a soulful manner wearing a homespun tunic. If you have easily alarmed children, believe me, somebody giving birth would be the least of their worries!

what seeker said, having taken my children to festivals they are NOT quiet places at night!

and it said labour started at 3am? and i am guessing she wasnt screaming the whole time, probably not until the later stages of labour which were nearer to morning?

its one night, i cant get my knickers in a twist in it or understand the outrage tbh. labour is a normal thing, imo it would be better if more children learnt about it at an early age.

itsnt there a 60% homebirth rate in the netherlands, do you think they all complain about the noise? i am guessing they ahve a far healthier attitute to childbirth and the noise that may accompany it than some here seem to do.

I take my children to folk festivals as well. Lots of them. All through the summer. And they are quiet at night, well the family fields are anyway. Although admittedly no idea about the broadstairs one, never been.

Broadstairs is most definitely not quiet. My earlier
Description is not exaggerated.

In which case, note to self, not to head down there next year.

But it does have the very best kid's circus tent ever! It's just on a main road in a town- very different from the greenfield festivals. Swings and roundabouts!

But the noise from drunken morris dancers and people giving birth would do my head in
Meh, might give it a go next year anyway. Take some earplugs or something!

Some of the Morris dancers are much more alarming than a woman giving birth seriously. Seeker's description is spot on :o

homebirth would be at home, and within the range of one-off noises you'd expect from a neighbour.

living next door to Tottenham fans, who only make a noise when they score, or neighbours didn't trouble us much.

haven't been camping at a festival for over ten years now.

sigh<

at Reading you wouldn't have noticed a woman in labour, for the people running around trying to pull down the power lines. idiots.

I'm guessing that this healthier attitude they have in the Netherlands would probably extend to NOT deliberately going to give birth in a Obelink tent at a folk festival and then calling the media about it.

It goes both ways...probably