What is the assistant's job at a HB?

[McMandy]

I've had a homebirth before, but never an unassisted one. It didn't occur to me until the other day, when my husband brought it up, that there would likely be an assistant with the midwife at the birth.

Is this absolutely necessary? My husband DOES NOT want the assistant there. It was hard enough for me to convince him to have a midwife there (after such a successful UC!), but I just felt, deep inside it was the right choice (I have no clue why exactly, but I do know it'll be easier on the cleanup for my husband and much easier to get a birth certificate!).

I haven't talked this over with my MW yet (I will at my appointment next month), but I'd like to hear YOUR experiences.

What does the assistant do? Is her presence necessary? If she HAS to be there, I'm pretty sure I have the option of having her sit out in the livingroom, if I so choose, correct?

We really don't want "too many" people around when I'm in labor. In fact, I'm sure we'll probably only call the MW when we KNOW that I'll be giving birth in 30-45 minutes. I want to call her last minute as I want to progress on my own, and if I could schedule it so she walked through the door just as the baby popped out, I would. In my husband's opinion, four is a crowd. He has just gotten use the idea of having the MW there, as I previously mentioned, and he doesn't want anyone else present.

Thanks in advance for any info/advice!

[nikirj]

This is going to vary hugely from MW to MW and birth to birth. You should talk to your MW about it directly . In my experience, the assistant can do just about nothing at all if that is what the family wants, but usually will be charting, handing out supplies, making sure the MW has everything she needs, keeping the area clean, cleaning up afterwards, sometimes taking vitals, and will be a fully trained second set of hands in an emergency.

[Peony]

It varies vastly from MW to MW so you won't know until you talk to yours. When I did hire a MW, I did not want assistants and that was something we talked about during the interview process. Some MWs will not attend a birth without one in case they need a extra set of hands, I understand and that is totally their right so I just kept looking until I found ones that were ok not having an assistant.