Several people have asked what we plan to do with the kids during our home birth. Will they watch the birth? Will someone take them somewhere? It actually depends a lot on the circumstances when labor finally picks up. With Silas' birth, I was in active labor starting at about 1 am, then he was born just before 5 am, so Millie slept through the whole thing. She woke up that morning to find me sitting on the couch with her new baby brother. What a way to start the day!
I'm kind of expecting to labor at night again, since that's how my last two births have been. And in that case I would imagine the kids will just sleep through it. But if I am in active labor during the day, we'll basically do whatever we need to do to keep them happy and occupied. We plan to have my mom here, so she'll be in charge of the kids. She can take them for a walk or to a nearby park if we need to get them out of the house. But there's also plenty they can do here: bake a birth day cake for the baby, wrap the presents they picked out for baby, or watch one of the new videos we have on hand in case we need that as a distraction. And really, just having my mom's undivided attention keeps them pretty happy!
As far as watching the birth, that's not in the plans. If it works out that way, it's fine. Millie had said she wanted to, but when we talked to her a little more about it, and helped her to understand that it's a painful process for mommy and that I might make some "noise" because of that, she said maybe she didn't want to watch after all! I have heard of 5-year-olds watching siblings being born and being fine with it, but we'll certainly let Millie choose whatever she's comfortable with. And with Silas being only 2, I feel like he's too little to be able to handle seeing me work through labor, specifically the pushing part. So we'll just do our best to keep him occupied in another room when we get to that point!
I do think one of the great things about home birth is that children can stay in the comfortable, familiar environment of their own home. Even if mommy is not available, daddy is right there for reassurance. And meeting the new baby is simply a matter of walking into the next room.
