The Role of the Father During Pregnancy

Most ante-natal classes include fathers for some or all of the sessions, including an evening when films on childbirth are shown. Fathers are encouraged to take on active interest in the pregnancy and by support and help, to participate in the labour and delivery to the extent the couple wish.

This includes being present for the birth of the child in most cases. The parents-to-be are usually also invited to visit the labor and delivery rooms prior to the woman's admission into hospital. 

The attitude and support of the father does much to encourage good bonding between mother and child and this forms the basis of  a good stable family unit.

Ante-natal classes are open to couples or women on their own and involve discussions on parenthood, plus relaxation and breathing exercises, based on psychoprophylaxis, to make birth as painless as possible and to reduce the need for painkillers. However, the medical profession recognises that some women will still need some form of pain relief from drugs.

National Health Systems have acquired the reputation of making birth as natural as possible and also provide good support for the mother following the birth, especially with briest feeding. They also publish a series of useful booklets.

Home deliveries are generally discouraged because of the risks to mother and baby of an unpredictable emergency. Most births take place in a hospital where adequate emergency and resuscitation facilities are available for both mother and baby - the mother returning to her own home with the baby a few hours or days after the births to the continuing care of the midwife or health visitor.

French obstetricians Leboyer and Michel Odent have both done much to revolutionize women's thinking on childbirth and in particular in the area of the positions and atmosphere in which they want to give birth. Leboyer advocates birth without violence, the child being delivered in a quiet and semi darkened  atmosphere and then placed in warm water so that the transfer from the womb to the outside environment is less traumautic to the infant and gradual adjustment can take place.

Dr Michel Odent has found popularity with those women who want to be able to choose the position they find easiest and most natural for labor and delivery.

It is hoped that all pregnant women, certainly those expecting their first child, will take advantage of the facilities available to them so that they can be adequately prepared physically and mentally for the reality they will meet, thus achieving a satisfactory experience of childbirth.