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Running Interference During Delivery
A Dad's Job While Mom Is in Labor
By Teri Brown
Giving birth is a time of effort, joy, satisfaction and labor – all at the same time. Perhaps at no other time in a woman's life will she experience emotion with such clarity and passion. But giving birth is also a time of family. 
Grandma, grandpa, uncles and aunts all gather together to welcome the little newcomer, and while their loving attention is gratifying, it can also be frustrating for the new mom who may just want to be left alone with her husband to deal with her new experience.
Rachel Gurevich, a mother of two now residing in Jerusalem, Israel, remembers being in that position all too well. In her case, it was her own mother who was the unwelcome visitor. Knowing that her mother didn't like her husband was an added burden on Gurevich, who didn't need any extra stress during the birth of her first child.
"My mother was standing on one side of me, and my husband was standing on the other," Gurevich says. "I was approaching transition, had not taken any drugs at that point and was in serious pain. My mother said to my husband, 'She needs her mother more than you right now.' My husband said back to her, 'She doesn't even want you to be here.' In the meantime, I had started having a contraction, and in major pain, I yelled at both of them, 'I'm going to throw both of you out of the room if you don't shut up!'
Not the birthing experience you want to remember. Unfortunately, scenes similar to this are played out in labor rooms everywhere. Why, during what should be a time of family celebration, is there so much strife within the family?
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