If you had a prem baby, would you want everyone to rush to the hospital?

[Fleur]

I guess how anyone feel is going to differ, it's a personal thing. I think it would just be good manners to ask first.

I think (depending on circumstances of course) visitors are allowed, but it's at the mother's (and father's) discretion. I hope all goes well for her.

[blessedatlast]

As MummyNaomi said sometimes visitors can create work, it's awful having to comfort someone that only has half a clue what's going on. So I guess it depends on her family and the relationship she has with them.. Visitors should be there for the Mother, not the baby if that makes sense..

With the twins I didn't have many visitors and when they died I regretted it. Not many people got to meet them, so they didn't seem 'real' to some people. With J I had lots of visitors because I was terrified he was going to die. The best visitors were ones that came, saw, told me how gorgeous he was, what a fantastic job I was doing then left a meal on the way out Ones that didn't demand ANYTHING of me.

[Rosebud]

My son was born at 25 weeks. I didn't want my family to be there 24/7 but it was extremely important to me that they meet him asap. In my case, it was the day following his birth as day 1 was spent trying to stabilise him.

You will find that NICU's will allow visitors, usually very limited numbers by the bedside and the length of time is usually dependant on how long the parent wanted them there. With my family's first visit it was 2 at a time for only a couple mins. For many of them it was a gut wrenching experience, something they were far from prepared for but they were all glad (as was I) that they were able to meet my little man when they did.