Would you let your child watch you give birth?

[singsong]

I'm pregnant with dc3 and ds1 (5yrs) has repeatedly expressed wishes to be there when the baby is born. I've had 2 normal births before and everything is low risk so far with this pregnancy. Anyone had their older dcs around when giving birth? Would like to hear your experiences, good or bad.

pmsl at pooing in sains

To those worried about having to keep quiet and not show pain... i was contracting every 2 mins for up to a minute for several hours in the house with the kids (icey morning, childcare hadn't turned up yet... was very glad i'd prepared them as i was convinced i was going to have an unassisted HB!)

I was hitting the floor with the intensity of the contractions nd moaning and there was no way i could have prevented showing the pain to the kids but they were happy with the explanation that 'Mummy's tummy is hurting as it's trying to push the baby out and that makes Mummy very sore', they were 4 and 2.5.

I agree it does depend on the kids but if you have amenable kids and you explain it well beforehand then they won't be traumatised by seeing you in pain

I would. I arranged for a doula to look after me and agreed with my DH that his primary responsibility would be DS1.

Needless to say babe two made an appearance the one day a week we had regular childcare for DS1. So I had the uninterrupted care of the doula and my DH.

I had home water birth with DD 5 months, and my son, then 2.5, saw it. I had a doula and my husband looking after him, and he was taken away in transition, but he came back for the actual pushing, which was fairly calm being in the pool. we didn't plan for him to be there but the whole thing was so quick that it would have been a 'dump him with the neighbours' thing, and it just seemed wrong to send him away when he wanted to see it happen. also I probably coped better with the pain as was trying not to make too much of a fuss. so I don't think it's a problem, if your DD really wants to, especially...

Had DS1 (just turned 4 yo) present when I gave birth to DS2 at home a few months ago. We simply followed the advice of the midwife and let him wander in and out the room. He was quite happy eating breakfast in front of TV and kept coming in to check on me, stroke my head and bring me biscuits!

It helped that i was very calm from hypnobirthing so i could reassure him that i was OK and there was no yelling or distress from me.

He was cuddling DP as his brother arrived in the world. He didn't see too much because I was in the pool but he did ask later why the baby had blood on him and he did comment on how disgusting the red pool water was!!

I think you have to do what feels right at the time. So it's probably best to plan for all eventualities and have somebody there to whisk him away if it all becomes too much.