Airman was absolutely wonderful during my labor, considering that we’d been living apart and couldn’t attend the childbirth classes as a couple. I got him “The Birth Partner”, and I dunno if he read it, but he did a good job.
He is, however, very squeamish about needles, so he left whenever I had to have my IV placed and taken out.
Robin
well, in China I wasn’t allowed to do much. Not allowed into the actually delivery room, but I was up at 4:00 am, made all the preparations, got the ambulance, prepared the stuff we needed, took care of the paperwork at the hospital, notified sister and mother, and then paced the halls for 2 hours waiting out in the corridor. I would have given anything to go in, but there was another woman in labor at the same time and it just wasn’t allowed.
The first group hospital sponsored prenatal class at around 6 months IIRC. I was the only father. At the second one there were a few more shamed into attending because of my previous attendance.
Primaflora, give your husband a hug, or more, for the rest of us. And tell him to return the favor. I have some idea how hard that must have been; we had a molar pregnancy before all the ones that worked. We were so scared for the first labor (twins 
), I can’t imagine after delivering a still born son.
I think the bravest person I ever met was a woman who gave birth to a baby with severe spina bifida. She could have terminated, but decided to give birth so she could donate the baby’s organs. The poor thing only had a brain stem. I can’t imagine what she and her husband went through.
With my daughter, my husband was essential. I was very sick (life threatening). He and my mother and our pastor were all there. They dealt with the doctor and all the decisions that had to be made, while I drifted in and out of consciousness. All I really remember is that one of them was always holding my hand, and it was the most comforting thing in the world.
With my son, I was chipper–composing limericks, laughing, just needing some help to manage contractions and transition. My husband was great except for one moment. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad moment. My son was born quickly, with the amniotic sac still intact. He looked, apparently, like a large, pinkish white, bloody balloon. Now, I knew that I’d pushed out the baby, this being round 2. And I could tell there was unusual activity going on (they were, I learned later, finding a hook and breaking the bag). And there was no cry. And he said…he SAID…are you ready? he said…“Oh my God, what’s that?” It was very funny a few seconds later, after they’d broken the sac and I was holding the baby. But my heart did stop as I thought I’d had some sort of a monster or something. We have fun with my son telling him how he was welcomed into the world.
All in all, a great time.
Oh, and the best of the limericks
The patient with piles had a fit,
When mistakenly given some pit*,
He wasn’t a lady
So did not have a baby
But his hemorrhoids burst, and he shit.
*pitosin, a drug which brings on labor contractions
Quoth the child, for what it is worth,
To his mother’s encircling girth
If it just weren’t so tight
And it weren’t always night
I’d stay here and give up on birth.