home birthers- did you warn the neighbours?

[Gingerbreadlatte]

I dont think I did for DC1 but not sure if I should re DC2- different neighbours now....

Dont know them really well but do say hi etc. The room the birth is in isnt next to their wall....

whats everyone doing?

I didn't with DS. I didn't know if I would be noisy or at home at all if the labour didn't progress so didn't want to make a 'thing' out of it before it actually happened, or have them poking their head out of their door whenever I left the house asking if it was nearly time . We weren't good friends.

In the end I did labour at home, moo'ed away all night and the lady next door heard DS being born. Even though I don't knew her at all she said it was amazing and a real privilige! everyone else slept through apparently :)

think it is just down to whether you want to chat about your labour with your neighbours... if you don't tell them I don't think they would really care though. For my next HB I won't be saying anything then either and we will have moved by then.

good luck!

I don't intend to (am 36wks) despite being on fairly good terms with them, although we have only lived here 6mths. The way I see it is, if they overheard a row between DH & I, I might apologise after the fact but would hope its rare enough that they could ignore it and think 'nobody's perfect'. Hopefully the birth will go well, relatively quickly etc and if they do over-hear, they will be forgiving - its not like I'm throwing massive parties every night of the week. As its something so hard to predict, I don't want to feel like they are constantly listening to every noise etc. waiting for it to kick off iyswim.

I didnt

we lived in a terrace, the neighbours never herd a thing, and were shocked when they saw me 36 hours after she was born, WITH a baby.

Other than transistion i was pretty much silent throughout (as planned), so there wasnt really anything to here.

thanks everyone. Think that confirms that I don't really want to tell them. I think its not really anyones business but ours really. I guess we can apologise after it there is an issue!