Explaining childbirth to 6 year old, help!

[MummyMaria86]

Hi, hope you lovely people can help me out, first post on here :)

I am 17 weeks pregnant with baby number 2, we have a daughter who has just turned 6, needless to say she is very excited about the prospect of becoming a big sister.

She is very inquisitive and obviously asking lots of questions about how babies get in tummies, etc! We have managed to keep it brief so far and she seems content with that.

My worry is after the birth, trying to hide my discomfort down below from her, especially as she is under the impression that all babies just magically pop out of their mummy's tummies! I had a traumatic natural delivery with my daughter, resulting in an episiotomy and piles in the early days after labour, and am so worried this will happen again :( But this time I am so anxious anticipating recovery will be much harder with a 6.5 year old watching my every move and questioning everything I do!

With such a big age gap between the two I need help on having "the talk" with her about how babies come out naturally. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Maria x

Just tell her the truth. At 6 she will understand it. The more honest and open you are, the less of a big deal it is. And please use the correct names for things... why on earth wouldn't you call it a vagina??

I'd go with telling the truth. Baby comes out of foo foo and it hurts and you have to rest lots after so it gets better.

As a side note dc1 I tore very badly and had a very difficult recovery, dc2 shot out in 3 pushes and I had a slight graze. I felt physically better hours after the birth than the previous month leading up to the birth.

I suggest an age appropriate book - you could ask at school if they have one or your midwife for suggestions. She's on the young side but in the age range where knowing a bit more facts of life is appropriate.

We borrowed books from the library to help ds 1 then ds2 understand. They only bit I found tricky was when he asked to see where the baby actually comes out! Luckily I had had a c section so showed him the scar!