My husband is trying to force me to have my MIL in the room while I give birth

Having the right people on your birth team can make or break the entire birth experience.

It’s stressful and painful, and while some people want their whole family to share in the joy of the moment, others would rather have a select few in the room with them.

For Pippa and Tim, the countdown has begun until they have their first daughter.

With just two weeks to go until they bring their baby home, the couple have begun sharing their exact birth plan with their family.

The plan was almost perfect, but things went wrong when they chose the right people to be in the delivery suite.

The couple were at home making plans when Tim suggested Pippa’s mum, sister and best friend Gigi be in the room.

This was the line-up of relatives he and Pippa had originally agreed upon, but he hadn’t completed.

Of course, my mother will be in the room, right? he added, which caught her off guard [Pippa] off guard.

Pippa didn’t expect to have her mother-in-law in the room during her birth and she certainly didn’t expect this idea.

So she told him exactly how she felt, but followed it up with a solution.

In fact, I’d rather she wasn’t in the room during the birth, she told her husband. But I don’t mind if she comes in for antenatal and postnatal visits.

This did not go down well with Tim, who immediately got defensive and hit his wife.

So you must have family in the room but I don’t? he asked. It’s my child too.

Pippa calmly explained to her husband that while she doesn’t mind who is in the hospital after giving birth to her daughter, she would prefer to keep the delivery room as private as possible.

I’d rather not spread eagle in front of his family, she said bluntly.

But there is another reason why she expressly does not want her MIL to be in the same room with her.

I especially don’t feel comfortable with his mom there, because she shamed and judged me throughout my pregnancy, Pippa confessed.

But her husband still didn’t take the picture, arguing it was unfair that his family was being neglected from the scene.

He was really adamant that it was his child too, which I already know, she said. But like I said, I just don’t want them during labor, I don’t mind before and after.

Ever since she set her own rules and expectations, he has stopped talking to her. I am afraid that when I have the child, that he will not accept my wishes and still leave him in the room, or worse, he will not appear at all, she said.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone online who disagreed with Pippa’s circumstances and told her to stand by her decision.

I really don’t understand all these posts about people in the delivery room, someone said.

Birth is not a spectator sport. It may be his child, but your body.

I hate this trend where there are a bunch of people in the room during a birth, agreed another.

This is a medical procedure, not a baseball game.

I didn’t even want to be at my births, laughed one woman.

Others believe that Tim was a little confused by the outcome of the birth, not the steps that will take place before it.

When my brother-in-law did this to my sister, she told him, I don’t want your whole family out there looking at my VAGINA, one comment read.

The word “vagina” brought her back to reality. In fact, he also didn’t want his whole family to be there looking at her vagina, he just hadn’t understood what childbirth really meant.

*Names have been changed