What happens to sibling during labour

[BeyondHope]

I am currently pregnant with DC2. I have a DS who will be 3.5 years old when this baby arrives. He was born very very quickly by emergency c section. Waters went at home and less than an hour and a half later he was here. I had corp prolapse and he was premature.

I have been told that due to several factors this pregnancy will also likely be section and also premature. So my question is, if it all kicks off into an emergency situation at home again and we have to get to the hospital quickly then what happens with my DS? We moved area about a year ago and now live about 50 miles from our parents. So we would obviously call them when it all happens but might not be able to wait at home for them to get here.

Would I go into theatre on my own while DH and DS wait outside? Would someone look after DS while my DH came in? I know that's unlikely. I don't know anyone local well enough to ask to step in and have DS for a couple of hours when the time comes while my parents make their way to us. Other than having parents live with us for the last few months I don't know what we can do.

Has anyone been in this situation? Surely it's quite common?

I have become really good friends with a school mum by being her emergency call when she was pregnant. She had a lot of health issues in her last pregnancy and was having a panic one day about going to the gp again as this time she knew they would be sending her in. I offered to watch her dc and give them dinner etc and ended up having them overnight when she went in to have him. We are great friends now and I was happy to help. Most people are delighted to be able to help you out in these situations I'm sure if you put the feelers out you'll have loads of offers.

I offered to help an American colleague if anything happened as her Mum was flying over 4 weeks before the birth. Yes I got the call in the middle of the night as the baby was born 5 weeks early.

I've taken in a playgroup friend in the middle of the night for a sibling birth.

Try to get to know some now and approach them now to ask if they would.

Where I live, if you can't make arrangements for sibling the hubby has to wait outside with sibling. A friend of mine went into labour very quickly and I wasn't home when she called to see if she could drop off her DD1. I called her hubby back and picked up her daughter from the maternity hospital and her husband managed to make it into the room just in time.

In emergencies people tend to be quite understanding. It wasn't till recently that I discovered that when I was ill earlier this year a friend kept an overnight bag in her car for two months so she could come and look after the kids at no notice if asked. (She was never asked - I'd probably ask her if there was an emergency with DH, but DH would always default to asking his DP)

I ended up having her daughter for 14 hours and rang my boss up to say I wasn't coming to work (and neither was my colleague)

I'd work on the lovely couple with 3 kids! It's not just labour but general emergencies it's good to have a couple of local contacts. I would be happy to be on call in the night for a couple of weeks...

Ask the nursery too. They will definitely have experience of sibling births, you could leave a set of keys with them so one of the staff can bring DS home if you are both at the hospital at home time. That is one of our options for arrival of DC2.