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Labor can be and usually is a really long day.Most Dads are up for it and as excited about the birth as the mother.Not every dad chooses to be in the delivery room but those that do enjoy the experience. There are a lot of ways to keep hubby included in the birthday.
A good rapport with the midwives and nursing staff is a must as humour often relieves tension. My husband broke the ice by wearing a T shirt proclaiming "shitabrick" with a picture of the same. It set the tone for the day and when I wasn't sucking in nitrous I was laughing at something he or the nurses had said.

There is actually plenty of things for hubby to do,be it back rubs, getting ice chips and feeding them to you. sponging your face and back of your neck with cool water or dealing with the phone calls from impatient rellies.
Manning the camera:you think gross now,but in years to come you will treasure the pictures.
Timing contractions: keeps them occupied and makes them feel trusted with something important, and let me tell you, he will be accurate to the second! Fathers in the delivery room make the best nurses!
Cutting the umbilical cord is almost a rite of passage these days,so ask your midwife or doctor about it before hand just in case they don't offer. It has brought many men to tears at the time and when telling people about it.
If you feel like a bath or shower, he'll be handy to help you in and out,and do the backrubbing while you are in there.
He will be kept pretty busy, but there will be some times where you nap for a while, but don't worry, the nurses will send him off for a cuppa, a meal,lend him a magazine and generally look after him.
Unless you have a really impatient husband in which case the delivery room is probably not the best place for him, he won't be bored for long.

Learn more about this author, Bernadette Callinan.
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