Noise makes pain worse. Children = noise. Don't feel guilty about sending the children away. That's just the way it is. And the younger they are the noisier they are!
Luck, schmuck, I say (dourly). The fact is that if you're in pain, you frequently need it to be SILENT and DARK, and you must triage your energy. whether mother or grandmother, sometimes the best strategies are to have omnipresent help - the hired kind - or to visit the children, rather than letting the little precious ones invade yourhouse.
Sorry to sound like the Grinch, but children are a bottomless pit of need.
signed,
A Very Loving Mother (now guilt-free)
xoxoxoxox