What are your plans for visitors?

With myself I will be giving my immediate family, (sister, dad, grandparents) the opportunity to come up to visit once baby is born at the hospital or at home depending how long we are in but with rules in place! After that we want to enjoy our little bubble for a little bit before letting other family/ friends visit x

makes sense, what about your in-laws?

well sadly my father in law is no longer with us and my mother in law and sister in law live in Nigeria so it will be a while before they visit unfortunately but we are trying to arrange the visit asap but baby won’t be in the newborn stage when they come x

We plan on letting closest family visit while at the hospital and then once home having atleast 5 days just as a family of 4 to adjust. Then just see how it goes with visitors x

When I had my first in 2022 we had the first week to ourself, you’re learning and baby is learning to adapt to the world, it’s a crazy place let alone having people coming in and demanding cuddles when you’ve not even got over the birth yourself, we also had the rule of no one feeds the baby, if bottle fed, dad needs his turn to bond and that is exactly how he will have his moment! Plus if there a fussy feeder, you know best on how to do it, we had the no kiss rule, baby still ended up with RSV at 6 months old! It happens, hopefully not to it’s worst! But it still does happen even with the no kiss rule.
We will have exactly the same rules this time around!💙💜

Immediate family in the first few days when we feel ready/are settled back in at home, and then friends the following week. Happy for people to have a hold but we’re enforcing a 2 ppl limit at a time so that I don’t get too overwhelmed. Absolutely NO kissing the baby, but a cuddle is ok! Our family and friends are very respectful and MIL is a midwife so we’re very fortunate xx

I’m having no visitors to the hospital other than my husband unless we’re in for a few days and then it will just be my daughter. We’ve also said we want at least a week to settle in to life going from 3 to 5 before we consider visitors and anyone who’s unwell will not be coming in.

If RSV is concerning you definitely keep an ear out for the new vaccination programme. From September there will be a national roll out of the new RSV vaccine for anyone over 28 weeks pregnant and the further on you are the higher priority you will be

With our first I think a week after she was born, the in-laws came round and my best friend. Then everyone else visited much later as we wanted to enjoy the bubble. Will probably do similar this time! X

Probably the same rules as I had with my first which was no visitors at the hospital and then close family members coming once we’re home. No kissing baby, washing of hands & definitely don’t come if you or someone you’ve been in contact with has been ill. We will wait a few weeks for friends and wider family to visit

I don’t have a plan but I have been thinking about this too. How do you tactfully say “don’t come over if you are germy” as it’s that time of year when sniffles will be about anyway. Also, many of my friends have young children who will be just back to school and are excited to meet baby which I don’t feel comfortable with at all if I’m truly honest. I don’t want to upset anyone but my mother instinct is already saying “no” 🙈😫

if they aren’t close family/friends, they shouldn’t just turn up anyway so will ask, all you have to say is in a couple days of course you can! And absolutely everyone SHOULD know the rule of no kissing baby and washing hands when you arrive at the house, if not a gentle reminder always works!

We just said ‘so when baby is born we’re gonna have a few days to a week on our own and we’d love when you do come round if you could wash your hands when you get here before being with baby’ x

@Julia with RSV check with your doctor or midwife as from 1st September there's a vaccine being offered to pregnant women, my nurse at my gp told me about it when I went for me whooping cough. She said midwifes should be talking to you about it but if they don't have the funding to give it you, just request it at your docs 😊 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cerv8k41xjmo.amp

sadly most of us midwives have actually only found out about this through news sites announcing it on social media!

I plan to tell immediate family no visitors for the first 1-2 weeks (unless I change my mind). That’s mostly for my personal recovery, chance to establish breastfeeding, find my feet etc.

From a health perspective I will be really strict with washing hands, not visiting when ill etc as it’s just not worth the risk. I’m a bit of a germ phobe anyway. Also not letting nieces and nephews hold him at the start as they are always ill in the winter and not conscious about who they sneeze cough and snot on!!

I’m already prepared for a bit of hostility about it but you’ve got to be comfortable with the environment. I have friends who said the worst bit of newborn phase was the constant flow of visitors, passing the baby around, worry about illness etc.

I’m a people person so I need people around, my parents will be staying at my house to look after my son while in hospital and we generally have an open house so people come and go all the time, I won’t change that…they all saw my boobs out last time anyway 😅😅

But I completely understand many would hate this and I have 100% respected any friends/family that said no visitors for 2weeks/a month etc whatever mum needs is what’s right for them xx

I just got offered the RSV vaccine by my midwife today.
In terms of visitors we have said we might not even tell anyone until a few days after baby arrives ☺️
For context - we mostly kept the pregnancy to ourselves & immediate family until the 20-week scan, so we have form for protecting our bubble 🤫🥰
I wouldn’t expect friends to be asking to visit in the first few weeks, but if they do we might just say they will be welcome after baby has their 8-week vaccinations.
(We recently declined an invite to visit friends with a newborn for this reason & just said it was recommended at our antenatal classes)
Defo agree that whatever you are comfortable with is whatever is right for you.
Your sister could fly with a mask to reduce the risk of picking anything up en route 😷