Hi, just thought I'd ask for others experiences on explaining birth to children.
I'm currently 22 wks pg with my second bub and my DD (4) as well as my nephew (5) and niece (6) have become curious as to how the baby will 'come out of my belly'.
My niece and nephew were both caesarean births and have had a little brother born in July who was also born via caesarean. My nephew asked yesterday 'are u going to have an operation and is the doctor gonna cut your belly to help you have the baby?' it kind of caught me off guard and I'm not sure the way to go about answering the questions of these curious little ones!!
Any shared opinions/experiences would be great
My kids know both ways can happen & that doctors usually only need to get involved like that (c/S) if something is wrong.
I would be showing your own DD some nice gentle birth videos on You tube. This is what I did with my kids. They all know babies come out of your vagina but also know that sometimes they (mum & or bub) need help & the quickest way to do that is an operation.
Tell your nephew & niece to talk to their Mum about it.
I would answer them honestly. I would probably discuss it with their mum first, but as to your own daughter, tell her the truth. My DD was 3 when I was pregnant with her sister, so we had all sorts of discussions about pregnancy and birth, she was fascinated. She also knows that she was born via CS but her sister was a VB...
I was very honest with my girls and tried to explain in simplistic but still anatomically accurate terms. They shower a lot with their dad so we talked about how boys and girls look different, and that's so girls can have babies etc.
The mother of girls in each of my kids' classes was due after me, but having a scheduled c-section which really upst the apple cart because why can't we all know what day our baby is coming?? I explained that some mummies need to have an operation so the dr can take the baby out of her tummy, that sometimes mummies know its going to happen like their friends' mum but that most of the time we just have to wait (and wait and wait!) until the baby's ready to come and meet us.
This topic came up recently with my 4yo (after watching an episode of Neighbours and one of the characters gave birth) - First she asked: How do babies get into your tummy? And I said Umm, God puts them there. Then the next question was: Where is it coming out? (As the midwife handed the baby to the mother) to which I replied: Near where you go to the toilet and she replied: Your bum! That's funny and then ran off laughing.
Having studied midwifery for the past 3 years, I have had a lot of questions from my three boys about birth and where the baby comes out etc. I have always decided on the truth with limited details depending on their curiosity. They all know babies can come out vaginas, or via an operation if there is a reason the baby can't be born vaginally. They all know how they were born, how many hours I was in labour etc. Interestingly, none have asked how they got in there yet! (my eldest is 8)
We were pretty open with where the baby will be coming out, especially since they would likely be there to witness it at the homebirth. I think I just started along the lines of "i'll be pushing the baby out, a bit like doing a big poo' (since they can relate to that! haha) and then as the questions increased, the more the details were expanded upon. My son fell over laughing the first time I said it was coming out of my vagina LOL. Trouble with such openness is they announce to everyone that the baby is coming out of mummy's vagina!
They ended up quite knowledgable actually about birth - the baby's position (from bub being breech and me trying all sorts of things to turn her!), how it comes out, they knew all about the placenta and cord etc. They knew not to lie down in labour, that mummy would be working hard to push the baby out etc.
I remember reading on here once describing the vagina opening up to let baby out as being like pushing your head through the neck of a scivvy. It stretches over your head and then goes back to normal. So I used that too.
My DS1 bought a kids anatomy book from Kmart and it has a small section on pregnancy in it, with a side on picture of how baby delivered. So when I was pregnant with DS3 we looked it up in the book together.
From gestation size (I would get asked every couple of days how big baby was)
To how does baby come out. I found it easier having a kids book to show and refer to.
Explaining birth to children
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