Posted on 07/04/2014 8:42:07 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
... But then there’s a lot about labour that nobody puts in so many words. Nobody ever told me that after the birth, I would feel as shaken as if I’d been in a car crash. That was how I felt for about two days after my oldest son was born, 32 years ago.
I now see it as my fatherly, comradely duty to pass on that kind of information, sparing no gory detail, to young men about to see service in that war zone for the first time. Nobody else — certainly not those fluffy prenatal classes — will fill them in.
“You do know about the afterbirth?” I murmur solicitously, watching them go green with a certain satisfaction. Nobody told me. When it appeared — about five minutes after the main event — I was already cooing over my first-born son. “Dear God!” I exclaimed. “There’s another one arriving!”
New fathers also need to be told that, when they enter that room, they might not see daylight again for a long time; and also that, in the endless night to come, they are likely to witness sights no civilized man should ever see except in gruesome hand-to-hand combat with axe and pike.
My older daughter was born after 30 hours of labour in hospital, culminating in an emergency Caesarean with 18 medical staff in the operating theatre (plus my irrelevant self). The next day, I asked the Registrar: “How is it that we can calculate the weight and circumference of a planet 10 billion light years away, but we can’t know the weight of a baby before it’s born?” (He answered: “That’s an interesting question and I wish I could give you an answer, but what I can tell you is that, if this mother had been ....
(Excerpt) Read more at life.nationalpost.com ...
Our latest two were at home. I wish we’d conceived the idea sooner.
Saw all three of mine born. What metrosexual crap this article is.
You are also pretty darn liberal and feminist. How about you keep the men in your life wherever you want them and let the rest of us negotiate with our own wives.
He's lucky she didn't have to eat the afterbirth like animals do immediately after birth..
Could you please be more specific?
Any male who would abandon their spouse at a time when the stakes are so high cannot call himself a man. And the stakes are always high. It is a frightening, painful process.
If you think you're man enough to be there during the fun part, be man enough to be there for the scary part unless your wife somehow insists you not be there, or you just can't - deployed, for example.
It isn't about the husband - it is about the wife.
Guy sounds a bit weak
He’s a jerk who doesn’t keep his word?
Why in the world would anyone restrain your hands? I've logged a lot of hours in the delivery room, and not once was I restrained.
here are the facts......women carry babies inside, women give birth, women lose lots of blood doing it, and its very painful, and there is no sharing the pain.....
Husbands can do a lot in the delivery room. They can shut down bossy nurses who want to do it their way instead of the way the doctor agreed to do it. They can demand a second opinion if things go wrong. They can advocate for their child if need be - the mother can't follow the baby to the intensive care unit if needed.
Years ago, when friends of ours lost their daughter during delivery, the husband insisted that they be allowed to hold the baby over the protests of the nurse, who said it wasn't done. This was back when it was standard practice to whisk the baby away to the morgue right away.
I think it would be good to get back to male/female roles and stop thinking one sex can do it all OR needs to take part in every single thing..
A man who would abandon his wife to the most frightening experience she's possibly ever going to have is no man at all. There is a vast difference between not sharing hobbies and not being there during a major medical event.
My husband and I have a very traditional marriage. We each have plenty of interests the other doesn't share. He would never abandon me due to a little blood (or even a lot).
Oh bullshit
I’ve seen 3 vaginals and 2 caesarean*
Women worry it’ll ruin the mystique of the coochie for hubby to see the tearing and blood and poop and afterbirth
Lol....did not reduce my desire for my woman by even one molecule to this very day
Silly girls.
Women...sex...kids....looking back ...everything else is crumbs
And I led that big life frustrated folks write about.....pales next to what a super hot southern belle who loves being a woman...a wife and a mom brings to the table
So hell yes...get yer sorry horndog ass in there.....yes...you really did do this to her......she will remind you trust me.....hold her hand....support her ....insist they keep her block well dosed....tell her you love her....but don’t drone on obnoxiously
And joke about frying the placenta like hippies with the OB...while mommy is screaming and pushing...lol
* I never knew livers looked like big flat eggplants
.helluva man...
Southern girls of a certain station actually wear makeup to delivery and have their hair done....and take fashionable PJs and gowns...lol...when I protested as Wifey prepared before heading to hospital she and my mom hissed at meike I was crazy to question such customs
You don’t have children though yet do you hon?
You might change some of those notions
Yep. Hair and nails were done beforehand.
10?
I’ve got 5 and I get dirty looks from progressives and femharridans
You’re my hero.
Uh yeah. But that was his wife and his child. Even had he not promised I would think because of the emotions of the. moment he would want to be there.????
That stuff you describe is real enough but y’all worry too much
It did not pale my desires for her any at all....and I was at the delivery every time
Guys that worry about the cooch looking gross or stretched...are just self centered immature turds that women ought not marry anyhow
Its like myself ...the reverse....from wounds and accidents and surgeries I probably have....no exaggeration....over 150-200 stitches and resultant scarring on my chest...and face....and hideous varicose veins and scars on one leg from an MC wreck
I don’t think my Rib would ever have looked at me and said “oh you’re gross now I’m not feeling much carnal urges for you anymore....I’m going shopping instead”
No way....and I would sure have never diminished her sex appeal from witnessing all these births up close
Men get accused of that a lot....I think only sissy guys like the kind grossed out by menstruation and stuff are that picky about some dreamy Raphaelite vulva
Man..I mean to reject your woman after she just birthed your child cause she’s now. ...not anatomically pristine would be very cruel and frowned on by God
I don’t think its in the Bible per se but it ought to be
Even my fighter pilot dad was in delivery room 56 years ago....he almost fainted...lol
Moms might remind you what you did to them..
.its true.
Any man loses desire by watching her give birth is not a real hombre.
Unfortunately, I was not permitted to be with my wife for the birth of our daughter. Here in India, husbands are not allowed in the room, particularly for Caesarean delivery. I had to stand outside, though I got to accompany my daughter back to the neonatal room.
I’m thinking they don’t allow the husband in here because a) there’s not a lot of education on what childbirth actually involves, and b) Indians tend to be very modest about their bodies. I can easily imagine a typical Indian husband assaulting the doctor for “taking liberties” with his wife (the doc has to put his hand into the vagina to assist with delivery, as I understand it), and maybe even thinking the doctor is injuring his wife; and it would only be worse for caesarean, where I can imagine a typical husband here might actually think his wife was being butchered and try to interfere with the surgery.
Guy sounds like a real wuss, I was there for my sons birth and felt the joy of it all was never so proud of my wife who did a splendid job of delivering both my son and daughter was there both times every Dad should be there.
That is a shame. I witnessed two miracles with the birth of my boys. I can’t imagine what I would have turned out like as a father had I not witnessed those miracles entering the world.
I cried from the depths of my soul at the joy that remains unsurpassed in my life.
This guy probably passes out when he sees a box of band-aids. For pete’s sake get a grip. It’s the birth of your child and new life. The gross part is some of those diapers . . . man, what little people can do!
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