My MIL wants to deliver my baby - for the dumbest reason

"I thought this was going to be a sweet story about your mother-in-law being an obgyn… This took a turn," one person commented on the pregnant woman's viral post. 

The interwebs is full of stories about mother-in-laws wanting to hustle into delivery rooms when their grandchild is being born.

But this tale takes things a number of steps further... with a woman's MIL wanting to deliver the baby.

Despite not having any midwifery experience.

Her reasons for suggesting she do it, though, are even more bizarre.

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The delivery room is no place for your mother-in-law. Source: iStock

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"I'll just deliver the baby myself"

Writing on Reddit, the woman explains how things came to escalate:

"Last night, my husband got a call from his mum asking if we would give his sister money ($300) to attend a funeral out of town next month for their uncle.

"My husband's family is pretty bad with money and his sister and his mum both currently owe us thousands... I remind my husband we're going to be on the hook for an $8k hospital bill in a couple months [for the baby's delivery]."

But when the husband tells his mum they need to save their money, her response is unexpected.

"Why don't you just have the baby at home?"

"I had all my babies at home! I have some midwifery experience, I'll just deliver the baby myself!"

The woman explains that she has several reservations about this suggestion.

"One, yes she had six kids at home, BUT my idiot FIL [father-in-law] left CHUNKS of placenta inside her and she got pretty serious infections three of the six times. All infections required a minimum two-day hospital stay, and she's honestly lucky to be alive.

"Two, she likely has the same 'training' idiot FIL received in the 70s and putting aside that, her knowledge is sorely out of date, she's not a licensed midwife."

But #3 issue was the clincher: "I don't want her within five miles of me when I'm having this baby, let alone near my bits catching my son."

She also noted that, "You're only offering this so we'll give you more money??? No."

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"Chunks of placenta"

Responses to the woman's post were equally supportive of her, and highly disgusted by the MIL's suggestion.

"I thought this was going to be a sweet story about your MIL being an obgyn… This took a turn. And please don’t give them any more money. All of that should be going to your own child," one wrote.

Others were disturbed by mention of the "chunks of placenta," with one claiming, "That's enough Reddit for me today."

And many encouraged the poster to ignore her MIL entirely: "The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation. That rate increases 4x for a home birth.

"Please have your birth overseen by trained professionals. If you want to give birth at home, that's ok, just have a proper nurse midwife with you."

As to whether women felt comfortable with their MILs to share such an intimate occasion, the Kidspot team also had some strong feelings.

One said: "Under no circumstances would I even allow my MIL to be in the ROOM while I'm delivering my baby. Truthfully, I wouldn't even want her sitting in the waiting room while it's all going down. There are just some experiences between woman and mother-in-law that should never be shared. This, my friends, is at the top of the list."

Added another: "My mother-in-law is 92 so it's a hard no for me."

But this response was the most brutal: "Yeah, nah, she still thinks you should put butter on a burn as first aid so she's not delivering my baby."

Originally published as My MIL wants to deliver my baby - for the dumbest reason