I know it takes some women HOURS to give birth, so I was wondering what you all did meanwhile
I was watching F is for family and there was a a joke men go get drunk in the hospital waiting room (show set in the 70s)

50 comments

  2. If the answer is anything other than support the needs of the woman currently in agonising pain who’s currently trying to bring your baby in to the world you’re trash. It’s really that simple.

    No-one cares how tired you are. How bored you are. How helpless you feel.

    Your partner will never forgive you and not should she If you prioritise yourself in the moment she needs you the most, I’ll promise you that.

  4. Kept my distance so I would not annoy her or make her angry, but remained close enough to hear her and do whatever she told me to do.
    Keep yourself and her comfortable. And never… never… never complain about something yourself.

  6. For the first one, I was keeping track of the contractions on an excel file on my office laptop. Wife thought I was working.

    For the second one, sat with her, timed contractions and once we got to the hospital, not much I could do since it’s during covid and I was asked to stay out in the car until she could be moved to the delivery room.

  8. I was with her through all the labor and all the births. There were times with me being there caused her to worry about me. “Are you bored? Are you tired? Is your chair uncomfortable?” Woman……you the one having a baby!!! Take this time for yourself!!!!! One of the great things about the cell phone era is quick contact. For all our babies, I would go to a large bookstore down the road for a few hours and she would call if anything was happening. That never happened. I always got back to the room before anything dramatic happened. But once we were in the delivery room I didn’t go anywhere. That was game-on time.

  9. Most of time it’s just a lot of waiting. You’re in the room with her. A lot of nurse check ups. In between switching laying positions to help the baby turn… I got food. Took naps. Browsed on my phone.

    During the actual pushing. You’re there holding her hands or helping hold your wife’s leg.

  12. In the room for both my kids births.

    Talked to her, held her hand, rubbed her back, fetched water and whatever else she needed. Once contractions got to a certain point helped guide her through breathing exercises. Encouraged her when it was time to push.

    Snipped the cords when it was done and voila.

    Proud Father to a 23 year old Son and 13 year old Daughter

  14. Next to her, with bruises and nail marks in my forearm with the harder contractions that took a lot time to go away. Breathing, coaching and focus on what she needed.

  16. Held her hand mostly.
    Sometimes the nurse had me hold a leg up.

    Then when they decided they couldn’t do vaginal birth I sat with her and held her hand while they did a C section.

    Pretty much same thing for both births.

    For some reason the doc felt he could do vaginal birth on baby #2 even though a different doc couldn’t on baby #1.

    Afterwards both docs said if this was 100 years ago, momma and baby would have died.
    So kudos to science and technology.

  17. Doing whatever she asked of me until the baby was here and also needed me.

    For me there was a big adrenaline rush when the baby first arrived, then again when we stepped inside our own home again.

  18. Told her I couldn’t stop watching because science was happening.

    That was between yelling “sets and reps” with her pushing.

  19. My wife was in labor for 40 hours when my oldest son was born before they finally convinced her to undergo a Cesarean section birth. I was there, made some calls, held her hand, almost fell asleep once, man, you just have to give everything to be right there doing everything you can to support her.

  20. In the room by her side. Fought to get her some pain meds when the contractions got too bad and the nurses didn’t care. Eventually got her an epidural. She squeezed my hand until it bruised. Cut my kiddos ambilical cord and cared for him all night while my wife recovered.

    Any women reading this: get that birthing plan written and make sure your partner is ready to move mountains to honor it. I was about to tear that hospital apart when they initially denied my wife an epidural.

  22. Chatting to her and watching the surgeon, both times.

    The second time I was watching a total eclipse happen outside, too. The surgeon had it up on his laptop.

  23. I was getting on a plane bound for Iraq. I watched him grow up in photos and finally met him when he started walking.

  24. My wife was in labour for roughly 48 hours, and gave birth in a birthing clinic in Japan for our first kid.

    I was in the room with her the whole time. I mostly massaged her back, and did whatever run / fetch stuff I could, tried to understand what the hell everyone was saying when they spoke Japanese. I also watched a bunch of random Japanese TV including some pro wrestling, and generally tried to stay awake. I failed at this and dozed off for a few hours on 2 separate occasions.

    In my defence, I had flown in from Vancouver, had my flight from Tokyo to Nagasaki diverted by typhoon and was forced to return to Tokyo only to return the next morning, and went pretty much directly from the airport to the birthing clinic. At some point during the birth, I went back to her parent’s place to shower and change clothes, and eat.

    I was there and awake when my first daughter was finally squeezed out though. I did record the birth (from a ‘safe from work’ camerae angle behind my wife). And I did cut the cord and then held my kid while my wife was cleaned up from the birth mess.

    2nd child was a C section (again in Japan) that I was not present for (they ended up needing to do the C section about 2 weeks earlier then initially expected).

    END COMMUNICATION

  25. For our first child, my wife’s water broke and we went to the hospital an hour later and had the child 2 hours later. I was right next to her the whole time, trying to help her while staying out of the way of the doc/nurse.

    Our second child, my wife labored at home after her water broke. She went in, they said she would likely have the child today but she could choose to be admitted or labor at home. She opted to labor at home. We went home for 5 hours and while we wait AND WITH MY WIFE’S CONSENT, I took part of my fantasy football draft. I was on my laptop across the room from her, asking her constantly if she was doing OK and if she needed anything. Shortly after my draft was finished, she said she thought we should go back to the hospital, we did and 45 mins later, #2 popped out. And I mean that almost literally – our second child came out after just 8 minutes of pushing!

    My wife (and all other mom’s out there) are crazy powerful. It was so inspiring to watch her in those moments. Her mental and physical strength, determination and grit was stunning.

  26. My wife had a home birth with my son as it was her second birth and pregnancy was normal. It was amazing. She was in her shower and gave birth in our bed (they bring plastic coverings for everything) 25 mins after he was born she was cleaned up and downstairs while the midwife and I ate pizza and drank a couple beers. 10/10 barely missed jeopardy.

  27. Right there with her. First birth, quite active. Once the nurse found out I grew up on a farm and had delivered animals before, she was happy to have me help. First one had the cord wrapped around his chest. He was vacuum assisted, which means he had a suction cup on his head with a cord attached. I kept steady pressure on the cord for them. Basically pulled him out, slowly.

    Second birth was easy. I was in the room, but it was quick.

    Cut the cord both times.

  28. With my first I was in labor for 28 hours. At one point my husband said can’t you just relax and shut up? I couldn’t tell him to get the F away from me fast enough.

    With my second I just drove myself to the hospital pulling over for contractions. My husband stayed home with my older daughter.

    Huge Improvement

  30. My dad was watching one of Micheal Jordan’s final basketball games before he retired from the Bulls in 1998
    At least he likes to put it that way but he really couldn’t go in since the staff was trying to take care of my mom who lost a lot of blood and was anemic. She tells me all the time how they had to put her in a tub of ice to keep her from overheating.

  31. In the room with her the whole time. North of the equator. Also cut the cord…you won’t have another chance

  32. I was there for all 3. The first one labor took forever and when the doctor looked at me and saw I was a little grey she suggested I get something to eat. Well the MIL went insane screaming about how I wasn’t doing anything and I didnt need a sandwich. Doctor just gave me that silent sorry look.

  33. With the 1st, I was playing in a men’s competitive softball tournament (she was early & had told me it would be ok for me to go). With the 2nd, I was at work on a construction site (pre cell phone days). With the 3rd, I was asleep in the waiting room because the idiots @ the hospital forgot I was there.

  35. 1st born, long labor, 14+ hrs. We watched tv together all day, had lots of sessions of pushing and trying and periods of break and rest and got nowhere. When the doc finally called for an emergency c section I was 1/2 way thru Commando with Schwarzenegger. 2nd born was scheduled c section and we were just talking in the room till we went back for delivery.

  36. Watching the news coverage about the Columbine shooting. My daughter was adopted so only my wife was allowed in the room for the delivery.

  40. Comforting her, chatting with her about various things, being her messenger/errand boy to get what she needed.

  42. Child 1: I was mopping her face and feeding her ice chips, for seven hours. Child 2: I was deployed to a combat zone, and found out the next day over our tactical radio net.

  43. I was there with her, 4 times and her longest labor was 90 minutes, my wife is a fucking Viking.

  44. I was right there with her. For all 19 hours of it.

    Emergency c section on the first one.

    Second one was a scheduled C section but she went into labor early and that was 9 hours.

    Figured I was half responsible at the beginning, I should be there for the end.

  45. 36hrs of labor. Took several cat naps but was there. Once the action started I was neck up and almost puked when the baby came out and I saw all the fluids.

  46. I was just getting in the way. Trying to massage her shoulders and annoying her unintentionally, between threatening the medical staff with legal action if the physician didn’t arrive right away. Nobody wants a stressed-out lawyer around, for good reasons.

  47. Providing her with an arm to to chomp down on while she was pushing. On the third kid I wised up and brought in a belt with me.

  48. Not a dad but I sat through the entire thing with my sister, her husband was out of town and I basically saw and learned more about my sister then I ever needed or desired to. I rubbed her back, feet, and neck, got her anything she needed, and she attempted to crush my hand quite a bit.

    Funny part is they handed me my niece first because they thought I was the dad and there was an issue that prevented her from holding her, so my sister is still pissed off that I got to hold her first. That little girl has had my wrapped around her little finger ever since.

  49. Right next to her, holding her hand and getting a boner.

    Seriously. I had no idea why at first, then realized her labor pain moans sound EXACTLY like her sex moans. My dick picked up on it before my brain. Had to shut that down quick.

    Other than that, waiting on her, helping her get in different positions, hand holding, watching, waiting…

  50. My first child was induced, but there were lots of births all happening at once so we waited a long time. My wife, who does enjoy watching NFL, and was invested in the New Orleans Saints run to the super bowl wanted the playoff games on in the labor room. Just about every nurse that came in gave me the stink eye thinking I was some goof just watching football all day.

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