Who has had children present in the house during a homebirth?

[Clr2014]

My dc are 7 and 9. Planning homebirth with dc3. Trying to think through what my other 2 will do when labour time comes. Obviously they might be at school but if it happens in the night..... or on a Sunday av.... I'd quite like them to be here (perhaps watching dvd in another room?!) but wondering about the noises etc.

I have great neighbours that i could punt them off to in the middle of the night or at last minute so that is very much an option.

Would love to hear your experiences / opinions etc.

hi Clr2014 i had a homebirth 2 weeks ago the plan was my children aged 2 and 4 would be going to family & friends if needed anyway it didnt work out as i had planned as my baby was in a hurry children where in bed they did wake up just after i gave birth only noise i made was wen i shouted i need to push i think that woke the kids they where not phased by it but did come downstairs to 3 ambulance crew ppl as the midwives didnt make it to my birth lol

i think i might make up a kind of older siblings homebirth pack. i'll see if i can borrow a small tv with dvd player to put in their room. get them a pile of dvd's, a giant bag of sweets and snacks, some activities (like new lego) and see if i can get them to stay upstairs.
dp will be around so can herd them back up if i really don't want them there.

that said, last baby born in 48 mins... may not be an issue :-D

I'm thinking that a siblings home birth pack may be the way to go too... I'll have fun putting that together! Xx

It is all ok if you can do it without screaming the house down. Also what will you do if you and baby have to go to hospital as an emergency as happened to a friend of mine? Not so good then.

I saw my sister just after birth as she was being weighed by the midwife. I said she was horrible and disgusting. I was 9 and I remember it well. I was looked after by neighbours who didn't want me after if dragged on so long and then had a row with my Mum who never spoke to them again. What fun!

i didn't scream or make much noise at all during my last 2 labours, so hoping I won't suddenly start this time

if i have to transfer then I will just have to go and dp will have to drop kids off with someone on the way. here's hoping my mum will be around!

That was part of my reasoning for a home birth, we were in the middle of nowhere (although usefully midway between the MLU and the other hospital, so I was reassured that in an emergency I'd be closer to the main hospital for a transfer if needed).

I did have to accept though, that I'd be going on my own as H would have to stay with DS or at least wake him up and bring him with us but then again he was pretty useless as birth partner so no loss if he'd been out in the waiting room!

DS2 was born quite quickly (started 8pm) about 1am with DS1 asleep upstairs. H woke him up to show him his new brother and he looked reasonably impressed then went back to sleep!

DD was born very quickly (started 2pm) at about 5pm with the DSs (then 2 and 5yo) in the sitting room playing on the computer, with the TV on and pretty much unaware that anything was going on!

Made it so easy, not having to worry about getting them taken care of and it is lovely waking up in your own bed with a new little one snoozing away and your favourite people in the world around you!

BTW, I had gas and air for DS2 but for DD the midwife didn't get there in time and she was on her way out when she arrived!

Make sure you ring in plenty of time as 2nd or 3rd ones often come more quickly than the first one.

midwife didn't make it for ds3 either! neither did the ambulance we ended up calling lol.

I had my older boys around for my planned home birth in July. They were fab, helped fill the birthing pool and time contractions on the iPad app. But then it all went wrong and we had to ambulance into hospital.

I wasn't expecting to transfer what with it being my fourth labour so I hadn't prepared them for that possibility and they were quite worried. Definitely have a back up plan for circumstances like this!