Having your child be present during labor

Has anyone had experience going through labor or even birth with their child around? I have a 2 year old daughter, and I just feel like I want her there, at least in the early phases of labor (probably not the actual birth). I guess I just really want to savor the last moments of her being my only child before we welcome our baby. The hospital I am birthing at doesn’t allow children outside of regular visiting hours, but I am planning to labor at home for as long as possible.

in our community

Baby scan

Had twelve week scan today, baby is due 3rd April. Baby was bouncing round none stop 🤣

She is here!

When they say trust your intuition and forget about your birth plan...we can attest to both!

I was due on the 14th and had been having early labour simtoms since 39 weeks. We were planning a homebirth with pool and were impatiently waiting for labour to kick in. On Thursday 17th we went to the hospital because baby's movements had reduced and I had started having some contractions and stronger pain than usual. We went to triage and they monitored me, baby's heart rate was OK but she wasn't moving as much. So after waiting a few hours at the hospiral I decided to get checked and I was already dilated and cervix was low and thin. We decided to go home and rest and see if her movements would pick up. By Friday morning she hadn't moved so we went back to the hospital at 6am, they monitored me again and this time her heart rate was acellerated and sometimes it would dip as well. As more people kept coming in and out the room checking the paper out of the monitor I kept thinking "they will push to have a cesarean...please God everything but that!". At 7:00 they start giving me anti nausea tablets "just in case" and putting a canula in "just in case". At 7:30 they tell me we need to move quickly for a c-section.

I was shocked, I had a little cry, but I felt my only option was to trust the doctors and do what was best for our daughter. They were changing me and prepping me as I signed consent, my husband also was changing while paying for parking and following me down the corridor. In 30 min they had already rushed me into the theatre.

I never had surgery in my life so I prayed all the way there and during, holding tight to a rosary as they did the epidural and told me a million information at once. The staff was superb, they all introduced themselves with calm and sweet voices, reassured me, cheered me on, told me I was doing amazing. In the room there were 15 people as shift had just changed so both teams were on. Even though I was absolutely shellshocked I kept a brave face on and told myself "don't think about it, everything will be over soon and this is the way it needs to go". Everything was moving so fast that somehow it didn't give me time to properly feel the fear and weight of what was happening! My husband also was an absolute rock and kept his cool, smiling at me as if this was our plan all along, which helped me stay strong.

The epidural worked almost immediately, and before I could realise how weird it all felt, our daughter Maria Margherita was born Friday at 8:13, weighting 3.47kg. They checked her quickly, had my husband cut the cord and then immediately gave her to me, were she stayed for 3 hours because she immediately fed and the staff felt she was more comfortable on me anyway.

They told us what the issue was: basically she had the cord wrapped around her neck and body because it was super long, and was distressing her when I contracted...so I would have probably had a really long labour and ended up with a c-section anyway after being in pain and exhausted for who knows how long. An absolute blessing I was able to sleep well at home and go in with all my strength and energy without any of the stress and fear I would have felt if I had known how things would have unfolded!

By 8:30 we were in our own room being checked, and by Sat at 13:00 we were both discarged and have been resting at home.

In all fairness it was definitely not our plan, and actually c-section was the one thing I really hoped wouldn't happen...however, by the Grace of God, we have recovered at the speed of light, I'm already off pain medication, up and running, breastfeeding and pumping because I have too much milk, went to the bathroom regurarly without any issues, not using medical pads anymore because I only have some light spotting...so couldn't be recovering faster!

She is also the sweetest and greatest baby we could have hoped for: sleeps 3 hours in the cot (even though I love having her on me), feeds 20 min, sleeps again after a nappy change and barely fusses when midwifes check her.

Again, this is all to say that sometimes the thing you pray would never happen to you and think its the greatest risk, the biggest threat and the longer road to happiness, happens to be really the greatest blessing in disguise! So to all the moms out there who dread medical intervention, I would say it's all valid, but the alternative can also be incredibly rewarding and necessary and beautiful anyway! I was so against a cesarean, that even if they told me how amazingly I would be doing now I would have told them I preferred the pain!! But I have been proven wrong and I'm glad we trusted the doctors and that things went as they did.

Maybe next time I get to use a birthing pool 🤣

Spontaneous birth

I'm sitting in maternity triage and feeling so upset. Ive had no high blood pressure throughout my pregnancy and now it's high and if there is also protein in my urine it's recommend I have a induction at 39 weeks.i had induction with my first birth and it's something I really did not want. I'm 38 weeks at the moment. Does anyone have any good induction stories or anything to recommend that will help me 😭

Any recommendations/tips for c-section prep and recovery

Hi everyone, I'm a first time mum and currently 36+5.

Went for a growth scan the other day (first scan I've had since 20 weeks) and even though growth is fine I found out my baby is breech despite being told she's head down at every appointment since 28 weeks.

I've opted for a planned C-section as I didn't like the risks with the ECV and the doctor said it's unlikely she'll move herself since it's my first pregnancy.

I'm fine with the idea of changing my birth plan from a natural birth but I'm a bit late to the party of researching post partum stuff for a C-section and anything I should be doing to prepare before hand or things I need to take to the hospital that would be useful specifically for a C-section.

If anyone has any advice, I would very much appreciate it as this change of plan means I'm only 2 weeks away from meeting my baby which is quite scary and I'd planned post partum for a natural birth 😅

Early gender scans

Has anyone had an early gender scan before there 20 week scan and did the results match up to your 20 week scan? :)

Scheduled C-Section

Can someone share their story on a scheduled C-Section experience? I had a last minute emergency C-Section with my 1st born so I’ll be having a scheduled C- Section for my 2nd in February 2027. How was that process like? How many days did you spend in the hospital etc id love to hear it all :)