Preparing grandma for attendance at our home birth

[in montreal]

I'm wondering if anybody has any advice for preparing my mother to be present at our home birth? She will be coming to accompany my daughter who will be about 34 months old and was born at home herself. My mother was opposed to our first home birth but seems to have warmed up to the idea now that she is invited to our second one. I am worried that my mother will be nervous or afraid due to not being prepared for the whole experience. I have a lovely book (Hello Baby by Jenni Overend) for my daughter which seems to have made her understand a lot about the whole process and she seems to be looking forward to it. Now I'm looking for some more adult resources to prepare my mother.

thanks to anybody who can help!

[lkvosu]

The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (I think that's her name) is a great resource for anyone who would be present at the birth. Ina May's Guide to Childbirth would be another great choice. I know those books are really more for people who will be playing an active role in the labor, but she could learn a lot about what not to do...like say things that might make you anxious, be loud, cook smelly food, whatever. Also, the birth stories in Ina May's book could give her a better idea of what to expect at a homebirth. On that note, Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent would be an excellent book. Ricki Lake's documentary about birth would be awesome, too.

[Caitlin0919]

We're having MIL at our homebirth to watch DD, who will be 3 by then. MIL was at DD's birth, which was a natural birth in a hospital, so I don't think we'll need to prepare her for the basic labor stuff. Our concern was(and is still, a little) that she'll harass the midwife about going to the hospital the second anything happens that could be construed as a "problem" in her mind. We had her watch The Business of Being Born and she has a copy of Husband-Coached Childbirth that we lent her before DD's birth. We'll probably ask her to re-read that book, just to make sure she understands what's normal and what's not in birth. My hospital birth had zero complications and there was nothing the nurses and OB did that my midwife wouldn't be able to do for us, so I'm hoping that experience has helped prepare her for our first home birth.