The day when a child is born is an opportunity for the father to exercise in a unique way his role as his wife’s partner. Here are some things he can do to support her and participate fully in this great event.
1. Act as an intermediary with the medical team
While his wife may be overwhelmed by emotion, pain, and stress at times, a husband must play the crucial role of point of contact with the medical team. He’s the one who goes in search of a midwife or a doctor when needed. He can also relay his wife’s wishes to the nursing staff and ensure that her birth plan is respected.
2. Distracting her to forget the pain
The pain of contractions can be very difficult for a woman to endure. This is why it’s important for her husband to occupy her attention, if she so wishes. To get through this difficult time, he can talk with her, soothe her, make her laugh … The most important thing is also to listen to his wife’s wishes, because the more she feels reassured by the presence of her husband, the better experience she will have during the birth.
Sometimes, of course, fathers need to know how to keep silent or “make themselves small” when necessary. As a true supporter of his wife, the husband must above all encourage her and offer her whatever help she needs.
3. Relieving the pain
The husband can relieve his wife’s pain using techniques and massages learned during a birth preparation course. He can also help her get positioned as comfortably as possible in the bed, on a birthing ball, or in whatever position and location the wife has chosen.
4. Praying
Some couples pray together during childbirth. When they arrive at the maternity ward, they entrust the coming hours to God while labor is still in the early stages, and when the child is born, they thank the Lord together. When the woman’s pain becomes too intense, however, she might not always think of prayer. This is when the father can pray in his heart for his wife and their unborn baby.
5. Helping with delivery
Some fathers can even, under the guidance of the medical team, help with the birth. This practice gives him the opportunity to physically participate in the birth of his child. Of course, it’s only possible if the delivery is uncomplicated. When the newborn arrives, the father can also cut the umbilical cord: a powerful gesture, symbolically and physically.
