Prior to giving birth to my first child, I made it very clear that I only wanted DH there - I'm a pretty private person and only felt comfortable having him there. Although this was made clear to MIL, she turned up anyway and came into the Birth Suite while I was in labour. I was just gob-smacked. She only stayed briefly, but I wondered why she was allowed to get into that part of the hospital in the first place?? (Can just anyone walk into a birth suite???) After she left, I was in floods of tears and found the birth experience more stressful to cope with than I imagine it would have been if she had stayed away and left me and DH to share the experience alone as planned.