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Labor, Delivery and Dad?
When Dad-to-be Is Reluctant to Be in the Delivery Room
By Mark Stackpole
Labor is a very manly word, suggesting strongly-built men doing heavy lifting while sweating in the hot sun. Delivery is perhaps not as obviously masculine, though it still might bring to mind the UPS guy, or the ever-vigilant mail carrier.
Put those two words together and you have something entirely different. The newly formed phrase still denotes hard work and the arrival of something new, but not in the way that men prefer to think about them.
Though we end up leaving with the greatest gift ever, and experience hardly any pain in the process, the walk into that room plays on our deepest fears – and curiosities. The mysterious female body, so poorly understood by so many men, has no place to hide as she lies prone underneath spotlights. The woman we love about to go through a life-changing chain of events set in motion about 40 weeks before; it seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that reality has rolled in, you begin to wonder what you were thinking. (Rest easy, sir, as there is a good chance she will be wondering the same thing herself in a few hours.) So many questions with so few answers, and they are coming at you at about the same frequency and intensity as your wife's contractions.
Will you love the baby as much as you are supposed to? Will the baby even care that you are there? Will you be jealous at the new competition? Will you ever be able to see your wife's body again? If so, will you ever be able to see it in the same way again? There is no un-ringing a bell. This "Labor and Delivery" room is an oracle where the ultimate truths are delivered and nothing less than your destiny is at stake.
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