A woman who is delivering normally doesn’t actually need any help. The baby will be born just fine without any assistance. The problem is that in a significant percentage of human births things go wrong, and being able to detect when something is not going right is essential in saving the mother’s life. Not long ago death in childbirth was the leading cause of death of women. Just because someone has given birth once doesn’t meant they have any idea of what signs of “going wrong” to look for are, and it would be astonishing if they had any idea of what to do if they even noticed something was going wrong.
You may not need help, but it’s awfully nice to have–having to deliver, pull the baby up yourself, not drop the baby, figure out how to keep the baby warm, deliver the placenta . . . please, please please don’t leave me alone to do all that just because none of it
is likely to kill me or the child.
I do think mothers would be more likely to be good with some of that, and likely to know how to handle a slippery infant in a way that cause both mother and baby the least distress. A father who’d been involved with the process would also be a lot of help. I mean, if the question is "would you rather have an unscheduled birth experience a) locked alone in an elevator b) trapped in a frat house or c) in a church full of experienced parents, I do think it’s going to be a vastly, vastly better experience in a room full of experienced parents.
The other thing mothers might be better about is NOT doing stupid stuff. Don’t yank on the cord, don’t try to tie/cut the cord, don’t make mom lie flat on her back, stuff like that. And having had a baby, I think I’d be looking for meconium in the mouth and know to remive it quickly if I could. But a lot of fathers would, too