Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Sharing the pain

Every delivery story is different. Mine involves my husband looking at some monitors and telling me when I was having a contraction. (Thanks, honey. I knew that.) I figured he was just nervous and didn't realize what he was doing. At no point of time did I want to throw him out of the delivery room.

But according to the hospital staff that gave us the tour of the birthing center, lots of women do ask their husbands to leave the room. And that might actually be a good idea. It turns out that women who don't feel a strong sense of intimacy with their partners, might actually experience more pain during delivery.

And more pain is not something women need during childbirth.

For women who do feel rewarding intimacy with their partners, the story is not that much better. It turns out that men in the delivery room - at best - have a neutral effect on relieving their partner's pain.

And yet, knowing all that, I am still glad that my husband was there. It was a big moment for all three of us - him, me and our son. And that is what I remember - not the pain.

Share your delivery room experience with me - were you glad your husband was there or not? Tell me in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. I am extremely glad that my partner was with me. He was exactly where I needed him to be, by my head playing my music for me and talking to me. My mother and a nurse each held a leg and he kept hold of my hand. I don't really remember the pain, but I remember all the love that was in the room that day.

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    1. Hi, Brandyn. I'm glad that you have such a wonderful memory of that day - after all, the result was that you got to hold your beautiful baby, right?

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