I am going to be attending my first birth at the end of September and my husband and I are a little nervous about how it will work with our 14 month old son.

He still nurses, and he sleeps with me at night. I'm just not sure how to handle me potentially being gone all night long! I'm sure it will be fine, it always is, but that can't stop me from worrying.

Any words of advice? How do you handle your littles at home, and Doula work?

My last baby was 18 months old, nursing and cosleeping when I did my first birth after her birth. She could be put to sleep by her big sister or her father if I was gone though. Sometimes she'd need a car ride.

Anyway, she did fine, my husband less so. He'd call me with her fussing in the background so I had to quickly establish that HE was in control and needed to handle her without talking to me. It wasn't fair for me to hear her in the background and it would pull me out of the birth space. If someone is bleeding or dying or needing to go to the ER by ambulance, then call me, otherwise, he's on his own. They survived. If your baby doesn't handle that first birth well, then it might be your sign that they're not ready yet.

I went back at 18 months and didn't look back and did 15 births from March-December of that year. She nursed until she was 3 years old.

I would advise you to ease into this work and see how he handles it. I waited until my youngest was nearly two before starting to attend births. 2 is SO different than close to 1. 3 is even easier. I keep telling myself there will always be birthing women, but my baby is only little once... and chances are you will get called in the middle of the night. When that happens to me, I try to entice my co-sleeping two-year-old to nurse before i leave, then i go get Dad (who sleeps with our 4.5 year old) to climb into bed with the little one. If he wakes up he often needs to offer him snacks and water to get him back to sleep.

Good luck!

I attended my first birth postpartum when my youngest was 8 weeks old. Yep, it totally sucked but since I was a single mom at the time, it was necessary. With my other two older children I went back to work part-time at night when they were six months old (not doula work, just a regular part time job). What I've learned: it may take a bit, but your partner and baby will figure it out. They may have a totally different routine then you have, your partner might handle things in a way that you wouldn't, but it's important to realize that your baby is with someone who loves him and they will figure things out on their own. And sometimes, yes, you have to nail that point home with your partner. Tell him that unless it's an emergency, don't call you. And "the baby won't stop crying" is NOT an emergency.

Yes, babies are only young once but sometimes working is necessary. Don't stress about it, things will work out