birthing

So lately I have been confronted with a brand new dilemma. When I was pregnant with our littlest(for at the least the next 4 months) I had my midwife ask me if I wanted any of the kids present during my birth. At the time my oldest 2 were a 9 year old boy, and a 7 year old girl. I responded no, that if the oldest was a girl maybe, but that I thought that a 9 year old boy was too young to be in the delivery room. Until she asked, I had never even thought about letting any of the kids in the room.

So by the time this baby is going to be born our oldest daughter will be 9, so my plan(that I hadn't even cleared with my hubby yet!) was to ask her if she was interested in being there, and if so, show her some actual birth footage, get a backup person to take her out of the room if necessary, and go from there. I never got the chance to discuss with hubby or to ask!

2 nights ago, during prayer time, our 5 year old daughter said that she wanted to see the baby come out. I said, "Well you already know how a baby comes out." She said, "Yeah but I want to SEE it." Hmmm. Then my 9 year old pipes in with, "Yeah, me too!" I'm trying to come up with a good reason why not. Not that I want to say no, but I don't want to just say yes without thinking it through either. If they know what they're in for, and I have a backup plan, then why not? I have very calm labors and deliveries, and I don't scream or yell or get out of hand...

Something for our family to pray about and decide! I'll let you all in on the answer when we figure it out! :)