Poll: Extended Family At A Birth??

[JRBL]

I think most hospitals are now banning extra people in the maternity ward, but if you had a choice, would you invite extended family to your baby's birth? Would you let your dad, uncle, brother, father in law come? What about your Mother in law? Sister? Mom? I'm super curious!

I would probably allow my mother, and if my mother-in-law just begged and pleaded, I would probably submit... and my sister, Callie, because we're close, if she wanted to be there, I would allow her. But that's where I draw the line. My other sister, no way... other family... uh-uh. And ultimately, if I had a choice without hurting anyone's feelings, I would have it be just me and hub. I just like it that way. I've had two "public" births and I like the quiet privacy of a "just hub and me" birth. But that's just me~ what are your thoughts??

[mamallama]

I didn't vote because only hubby was allowed in the room both times. That was my decision and that's the way I would do it all over again.

[savedbygrace]

I'm not bashful.
For abby's birth, I had : MIL, dh's "godmom", SIL, and DH.
For Joey's Birth, I had : MIL, SIL, Abby and DH.
This time I will have : My sister, maybe MIL and dh.

But I demand that it is quiet and if you're not there to help me then get out. I feed off of other people's positive energy.
When I was pushing Abby out, my dh's "gm" said " I don't think Abby wants to come out" and I wanted to tell her to shut up.
MIL pretty much stays out of the way. SIL or Sister is there to video tape and dh is there of course for support.

[ChamomileFriend]

If my mom wasn't the one watching my kids when I was in labor, I might have her come, but no one else other than her or dh would be invited from the family - they can all come to visit after the baby is born and I've had a little time to rest up. My mom was at my first labor/birth. Definitely not my dad or uncle, not that they would want to see the birth anyway, no way. I do like it to be as little people as possible, basically just me and dh and the midwife, maybe one other nurse - nice and quiet so I can relax and just focus on the task at hand.
I don't really have any IL's so don't have that to consider. Not sure what I would say if my sister wanted to come.

[Jessy]

I'm in the 'not bashful' category. I don't have a single male relative that would want to be in there so no problem there. I really wanted my mom at my last birth but she didn't make it in time due to a huge snow storm. My sister could have come in as well but I had no clue she was in the waiting room or I would have had her in there. It ended up just being dh and I and it was pretty nice that way. I had time to clean up, situate myself and enjoy all the family that was there.

[JRBL]

Yeah, I meant to put the option "Just me and hub" and by the time I noticed it was too late. Sorry!

[BlessedMommy]

I'm a private birth kind of person. Only husband and midwife there both times.

[Tammyn4As]

I didn't vote because I wouldn't want anybody but Dh, my Dr and a nurse. I might have let my oldest come in but my doc has had bad experience with that in the past (had a kid freak out and ran out with no one to chase after them!) In fact with my oldest I was throwing extra nurses out! I looked at each one and said do you NEED to be here if they said no then I told them to leave. lol

[krazee4jc]

I wasn't bashful at all...everyone was there! Like Esther, they couldn't be to loud

[meg]

With both the boys, it was just dh and I and a midwife, and my obgyn. I never had any desire to have anyone else there - I think I would have found it distracting and off-putting. I knew I'd have trouble focusing on what I had to do, and I also felt that when our baby was actually born, I wanted to just savour that moment with dh, just the two of us.

A funny story comes to mind regarding this. A friend and I were talking about this exact thing, and her theory was "If you weren't there at the start (conception), I don't want you there at the end (birth)!" ie., just her and her dh, LOL