So Im thinking that our support person for DD has fallen through today. its a long story but it seems like its all too hard for her to get in here in time! And at the moment we cannot think of anyone to look after her, well anyone that we want to look after her anyhow!
So now we are thinking of taking DD into the birthing room with us. DH has said that he would be more than happy to look after her and me throughout, and if she needs to be taken out of the room than he would do that, he just wants to cut the cord really!
However, upon our first earlier on, the midwife told us that the hospital prefers it if children are not brought into the brithing room.
So DD is 2, I dont know how she will handle it, but than again i didnt know how I or DH would handle it the first time round....
can we take her in, should we take her in?
Also how can I prepare her in these final days before bub arrives?
having her there will be wonderful!
we had ds there for dds birth (but we were at home)
we did have a support person for him though so that dh didnt have to cater for both of us..
I had my 2yr old DS in there and he was fine. I did however have my older 2 children (15 & 12) to look after him as I needed DH and DH also caught the bub.
I wouldn't hesitate to take him into another birth though as he loved seeing his baby sister be born.
I think a lot would depend on the child - there's no way I would take DD in - not because I think it's inappropriate but because she would just find it really hard to be in there for hours on end and there's no way we could entertain her for that long so having her in there would be just another thing for me to worry about. But I guess it also depends on the length of the birth too - I always think in terms of hours and hours because I had a long one.
But as you're considering it, I'm guessing you've already thought about this and think that your DD will go OK. If you're still dubious though, maybe call the hospital, explain the situation and see if they've got any suggestions.
My little girl is the same age as yours, and I briefly considered allowing her to be there to witness the birth of her little sister. It didn't take me very long to decide (quite strongly) against it, purely because *I* think that at that age, they're too young and don't yet have the capacity to understand why mummy's in so much pain, why the blood is no cause for panic, what those machines mummy's hooked up to are, etc... not to mention the fact that I *needed* my DH's attention focussed solely on ME, I couldn't bear it if he was constantly distracted by DD1 getting into mischief or panicking at the sight of me in pain or deciding she was hungry etc etc etc...
But, that's just my personal opinion and I have heard that lots of siblings and parents have amazing, positive experiences being present at the birth. I just didn't feel it was a good idea for *my* daughter to be there with DH and I, and she had a great sleepover with her nanny and poppy (we'd dropped her off earlier in the evening before we really knew anything was happening, so it wasn't like we woke her up in the middle of the night and dumped her at my parents' or anything) and in the morning came to see mummy and her new baby sister in hospital. We were lucky enough to go home that afternoon so the adjustment and bonding between them happened pretty much straight away.
I say if you think your daughter is up to the challenge, go for it! Just make sure you have a back-up plan in place just in case something goes wrong or your little one decides she's not happy being there in the thick of it all Good luck!
I think it depends on the child. I had my 2 with me for a while while I was in labour, they weren't there for the birth though. DS (5 at the time) totally freaked out and couldn't deal with it at all while DD (3) was fine. If you think your DD could handle it by all means have her there. It's your labour and your decision - the hospital will just have to 'deal' with whatever decision you make.
Taking DD into the birthing room
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