[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

I'm about 5 years in being a dad and the most stressful part of it all is still being in that delivery room. All the tips and tricks they teach you about comforting your wife through labour (massages, back rubs) did not work for us. My wife pretty much wanted me to leave her alone so I felt pretty useless. And there were complications with our first birth (umbilical cord wrapped around my daughter's neck) and at one point during the long labour and delivery, there were 14 people in our delivery room and you can tell by the way they were talking that emergency procedures may be necessary. Everything turned out to be fine but the tension and stress in that room was so unbearable.

During our second birth, we were sitting in triage while the nurses were deciding whether or not to admit us. The triage room at Foothills was just one large room with beds curtained off from one another. We could hear (but could not see them) a couple in the bed next to us being told their baby was stillborn. The cries and howls that ensued were so terrible and sad. Each time the nurse came back, the father would ask her to check the fetus for vital signs again, hoping for some kind of miracle. That incident haunted me for the entire birth of my son and I felt incredibly stressed again in the delivery room (which turned out to be a very smooth delivery compared to our first).

A year or so ago, my wife thought she was pregnant again. The first thought that popped in my head was not the joy and challenges of having a third child. Instead, the first thing that popped in my head was the dread of being in the delivery room again.

Not sure if anybody else have had similar stressful experience in the delivery room. I think the fact you're standing by being completely useless while your wife is in so much discomfort and pain makes the stress so much more acute. Sure, you can give your wife encouragement and remind her to breathe deep breaths and give her ice cubes to chew on but really, a dad is pretty useless in that delivery room.

Me reading that post