She may not have the world's best parenting skills, but that hasn't stopped Britney Spears from flying home to help her little sister, Jamie Lynn, give birth.

The troubled pop star, whose erratic behaviour led a court to bar her last year from seeing her own two children, flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans today and then headed home to the family mansion in Kentwood, Louisiana.

Jamie Lynn Spears, a children's TV star whose pregnancy at age 17 unleashed questions about its impact on her young viewers, is scheduled to give birth any day.

Britney Spears, 26, was accompanied by her father, Jamie; her brother, Bryan; and her assistant Brett, People magazine reported.

The trip came a day after a Los Angeles court granted her father, who is acting as her conservator, permission to sell her luxurious house in Hollywood.

Spears is reported to be keen to move to be nearer the Malibu home of her ex-husband and two kids.