Home birth and older dcs

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Just wanting to know what other people's experiences have been, for all I know baby might turn up while dd and ds (6 and 3) are asleep but we're open to the idea of them being around. Has anyone had their older dcs with them? Were they in a separate room or free to wander? How did you find it? Did dcs want to be at the birth? Etc...

My sister had a home birth with my second nephew. I was her birth partner and my three year old nephew was downstairs with nanny. I think he would have found it quite shocking/worrying to see mummy have a baby so I'd probably suggest keeping them downstairs with a family member. Once baby arrived was wrapped up and all was well, nanny brought first nephew upstairs to meet his baby brother and it was lovely.

My DC who is 5 was around toward the end and would go up and downstairs and potter about. He wasn't remotely freaked out and was behind me with my partner at the very last minute to see his sister bought out the water and to take her first breath. It was a very beautiful experience and he's very proud of being there to see his sister brought into the world!

My homebirths all happened in late evening/night while the older DC were asleep, which was perfect. They woke up in the morning to find newborn sibling. Might be wise to have a contingency plan if if happens in the daytime though.

One of ghe older DC's did wake up and get up to see what was going on with last baby but soon scuttled back to bed when he saw I couldn't really speak and DH was busy with pool etc After the birth though, about 10.30 pm he came in and had the first cuddle while I had a shower, and he's very proud of being first on the scene ! Not sure I could have coped with any of them at the birth, would have found it quite stressful as I wanted quiet!

My home birth of DC2 happened at night, so DC1 woke up to find the baby there in the morning. I hope the same thing will happen again tbh, I don't really like people around me when I am in labour & can imagine it quite a stressful dynamic with my 3 year old screeching etc....

Had 2 home births with DS2 and DD. DS1 went to granny's for the day when u had DS2 and came home at bedtime to his new brother - he looked horrified at first and didn't want to come into the house but soon got over his fright. With DD I started labour first thing and sent DS1 & 2 (4 &2) off to a friends house to play with friends DC - they all know each other well - but I was in stop-start labour all day and they came home after tea and I had to try to help put them to bed which wasn't easy as contractions were getting v strong and I couldn't speak much so DH did the stories! We got the midwives around after they were tucked up and at one point DS2 popped his head round the door but didn't seem to bothered by all the ahem noise and activity and just toddled back to bed ! DD finally arrived at 2amish and DS1 trotted in at 7am to find a new baby and this time he was a very proud big brother . So I guess try to send them somewhere if you can during the day but hopefully the baby will be considerate and pop out at night!

My dd1 is 2.5. We watched one born every minute a few times so she could understand what birth can be like. I asked her if she wanted to be there (I wasn't noisy with her in labour at all). She said she wanted to go to my mum's so I left the decision up to her.
I went into labour during the night and my mum picked her up around 5am as I thought things were moving quite quickly and I was disturbing her by being up at the toilet constantly.
I'm glad she went to my mums as I ended up being very noisy during pushing this time and making weird animal noises lol (no control over it at all).

My hb happened through the morning with DS delivered at midday. DD was around but i moved upstairs when i phoned for mw and she stayed downstairs. I think she was a little bothereEddie's Birth / a homebirth with siblings. DP had to attend to her a few times so he wasn't able to concentrate on supporting me through labour. I didn't find this a problem particularly as it only lasted an hour and half once I got in the pool! It might be an idea to have another person around to look after your children. You definitely need a contingency plan for them to be cared for elsewhere if the need arises.

Beforehand I read a book called "How did I begin" with DD so she knew the basics of what was happening. We also watched this clip on youtube of a homebirth with siblings present.

Eddie's Birth / a homebirth with siblings:

Sorry, here's the clip. Not too gory for little eyes!

We've watched all manner of birthing videos already with them, they both know the ins and outs of birth as we prefer them to know it's all natural and not always a highly medicalised thing like on TV, we're hoping to kind of go with the flow but have someone close by in case of transfer. It's quite important for us that the kids are in the house at least, I think we'll see if we can organise for someone to nip in if needs be :)