Toddler during labor?

My husband is very supportive, and my mother (and hopefully mother in law) will be with us for the birth, but I was wondering if interacting with my toddler will help me with the labor of our second child. I am worried the pain will make me irritable and I dont want to scare or snap at my 2 year old son. At the same time I think that he will be a wonderful distraction from early labor as long as I can control myself lol. Any moms with advice and experince on this subject would really be appriciated. Thanks  

I personally just had DH in there (my mom was in NY and couldn't be there, and MIL was working-in the same hospital, different department) so it was just him, the docs and the nurses...My oldest didn't come to the room til like an hour after I had given birth, and that's when he got to meet his brother. BUT, my labor was really fast, I got to the hospital at almost 5 and had my second son at 6 something...so I did most of my labor at home.

It's fine during the early stages of labor, but if you are going to go natural you won't have time to even think about what your daughter is doing when things start getting intense. We had someone come and pick up our daughter after about 4 hours of labouring at home and bring her back when we were home with ds. This time we are having my MIL come and stay with both the kids at the house until we are home from the hospital.
If you are getting an EPI or pain relief it may be OK to have the toddler come in the room to say hello and visit, if your family is going to be there waiting anyways.

I plan on laboring as much as possible at home and dont plan on bringing my toddler to the hopital until after the birth, but was wondering on how your little ones helped or hindered your early, at home, labor,. If its better to have someone watch him or interact with him as much as possible to distract myself from contractions ( while still at home, not at the hosoital).

My mom had my kids every labor. My youngest would be jist under two when i'd give birth. They were clingy and didnt understand what was going on. It was better for my mom to watch them and bring them to visit AFTER the birth.

Quoting Megan Durham Herman:" I plan on laboring as much as possible at home and dont plan on bringing my toddler to the hopital until ... [snip!] ... him or interact with him as much as possible to distract myself from contractions ( while still at home, not at the hosoital)."

It didn't hinder it at all for me, it started at 6am though so she was still sleeping and I didn't really accept it was true labour until about 9am. My SO came home by 9:30 and my friend was there to pick up my daughter by 10am. We were ready to go to the hospital by shortly after noon. Had him at 5pm. So it really depends on how quickly you progress, just have a plan with a couple back up plans in place and go with your gut!

i stayed at home with my partner and my 3 yr old daughter during the first stages of labour everything went very smoothly, but i do think i convinced myself i wasnt quite as close to giving birth as i was ( i didnt want my daughter to see me in pain so i was kind of brushing it off as much as posible) as soon as i met my parents at the hospital so they could take my daughter thats when i realised i was really about to give birth... i had my new born in my arms within an hour of saying good bye to my daughter.... if i had convinced myself to stay at home another half hour i wouldnt of made it to the hospital.
so yeah it was ok but make sure you listen to your body an dont put on a brave face  

I had to take my 14 month old when I went into labor with my second daughter. It was noooo fun at all. She was getting into things, my husband wasn't controlling her enough, I was in pain and snippy, and it was a mess. So at 3 am when we were sure I was staying, I called a friend to come play with her in the waiting room until my dad could get there at 8am and take her to my house