I was just reading through this article about having older children at the birth, and thought it shared a lot of wonderful information. From what I have experienced and heard from others, having a support person there for the child(ren) is very important. I have heard of stories where the child became incredibly upset, and it would have been helpful if there was someone there to take the child out of the room for a bit. I have also heard wonderful stories where it helped the family feel connected to have everyone there for the moment the baby was born.

I did not know how my older children would react, and I was too worried about them to have them present at the birth. I did have them there with me during early parts of labour, before it was time to actually deliver the baby. I was surprised at how well they seemed to handle that part. I walked throughout the house and paced during a large part of that time, and my son would come up and rub my back when I stopped walking during a contraction. They may have been fine at the birth, but I was still a bit too uneasy with it. Ultimately, I did not give birth at home, so we really did not have the option to have the children there when our last child was born. I do wonder if they would have been OK being there if things had been different, but it was still wonderful to reconnect with everyone once our baby was born.