children at the birth

[chloeb2002]

ok this may just seem really odd but baby2 is due at teh end of april (we ive in australia) and dd1 who is 5 really wants to be there when her sister/brother is delivered. She is probably less squemish than DH and as i am a nurse she has stopped at more than an average number of road traffic accidents and so i guess is qute hardened to blood and gore! (bad mother). but however much i dont want to say no to her i dont want her traumatised. my midwife says as long as dh takes her out if she isnt happy or theres a problem then its fine. Dh is quite willing to take her out as i think she is keener than him to be there! anyone ever had children there?

I wouldn't have planned to have my children there, but with DD I had a home birth and DS2 woke up and came downstairs to watch me puching DD out. The only downside was he spent the next few weeks telling strangers about it . I had a really easy birth, and although I had no pain whilst pushing, I did make a some noise, which DS described as screaming.

If you did decide to let your DD be there, could she watch some films of real births so she wasn't worried about you "labouring"?

It's likely that the baby will be born at night, so she could well miss it anyway, so maybe it's best not to get her hopes up so isn't disapointed.

my 8yr old wanted to be there when i had my little girl, if it wasn't such a rush, ie my partner having to go and get children from skool right in the middle of established labour probably would have let him.

mine also a home birth very relaxed and he already new where babies come from and i'm not a screamer so i thought he would be fine

um with dd i had a an epidural because of a pelvis injury being depositied by a horse and for the same reason will probably have one again. I guess our biggest reasons for letting her be there are that i dont want her to feel left out? and we are new living here and dont known many people who we can say at 2 am oh sorry need to go now and palm her off? think she will not appreciate that either. one neighbour i am sure would have her or collect her from school if needed etc. just think she is 5 and aware that there will be lots of blood and it will hurt me for a while. will just have see maybe. dh isnt totally sure he wants to be there and certainly no where near the blood end as he willl allmost certainly faint! so maybe i will just have to play it by ear.

Yes although mine were younger and there by accident.
(SIL said she's take them then refused on the day! Mother didn't want to know etc.)
It was fine except they took more of my dp attention (he much to my annoyance he spent most of my labour on the phone trying to find somewhere for them to go until I yelled at him and told him to get off the phone)
No lasting trauma, just some really funny questions at the time.
For me if it was intentional It would depend a bit on how prev. labour has been how the pregnancy was and how essential you think it is d is there since he might have to take her out.