Older kids at MW appts? - Page 2

[Munki'sMom]

My girls went to every single appt I had! They loved going and so did my MW having them there. They were 3.5 and 5 years old.

[DahliaRW]

My boys go to every appointment and my ds1 went to every appointment when I was pregnant with his little brother. I've had 2 different MWs (my first mw moved. ) and they both had toys and such for the kids in their office. I want my boys to feel like they are a part of this pregnancy and birth, and excluding them from prenatal appointments would do more to make them feel alienated from it. They tend to be busy playing with all the novel toys that they don't even seem to notice what we talk about. Plus my mw now has little "fetus" dolls at every 5 weeks gestation, and my oldest who is 4 loves seeing what the baby looks like in utero and holding the doll. I think it helps him understand what's going on "inside" me.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by DahliaRW

Plus my mw now has little "fetus" dolls at every 5 weeks gestation, and my oldest who is 4 loves seeing what the baby looks like in utero and holding the doll. I think it helps him understand what's going on "inside" me.

That's so cool! DD is constantly asking me to see the baby and so I just show her u/s photos off the web. The dolls would be so much better though!

[mommy2two babes]

My DD was aound 20 mos during some of my appointments. She came to almost every appointment with me. I have a really cute picture of her with my MW and the dopplar to my belly.

[AmieV]

ugh, mine were almost 4 and just over 2, and yes, I brought them to probably half of my appointments. Honestly, I enjoyed my appts so much more when I didn't have to bring them, but it was really, really great for them. They are in love with my midwife, they play "Barb" all the time (she brought the other m/w she practices with to my homevisit, and she did the charting, so the next time they played "Barb", my oldest DD was Barb, and she told her little sister "You can be the one who writes things down") My m/w always let them do stuff like turn the doppler on, "help" measure mommy, stuff like that. And she had the greatest toys and books, of course. They still talk about the baby doll at Barb's office.

It didn't end up mattering much as far as comfort for them for the birth, since I labored overnight and transferred to the hospital before they were up for they day, but because of that transfer it's even more important to me. Because though they know their baby sister was born in the hospital, they were exposed the vast majority of the time to midwifery care. I know there's a good chance they won't remember any of this because they're young, but I have such a passion for this work and empowering my daughters that I really wanted them to have a good experience with my pregnancy and be involved in it as a normal part of life.

Now they're having withdrawals. We're going to visit her in the next couple of weeks because they don't understand why she doesn't come around much anymore. :P

[SereneBabe]

My daughter's been at all but one (she's 5.5) and it's been good to have her there. BUT, when she wasn't there I was crying and got really honest. So, I know I need to have more than one appt without her where I "need to be strong" etc. She's seen me crying enough, poor sweet thing.

Honestly, it was good to have my husband not there for one of them, too, for similar reasons. Sounds like I'm not honest with my family, but I totally am. It was just nice not to have to think at ALL about the whole audience if you kwim.