It’s tough being a birth partner… said no labouring human ever. OK, so pushing half a stone (give or take a few pounds) of baby out of your body is incomparable to any other life event and, sadly, no matter how many bantering bros attempt to simulate labour pains in the name of YouTube lolz, unless you’ve actually given birth, you will never understand what it really feels like.
But still… it’s a difficult time for them too. You might feel out of control – but they’re properly helpless, witnessing the person they love the most in the world going through a whole range of new emotions and sensations. Plus, they’re scared – possibly more scared than you, due to the aforementioned lack of control thing – and nervous about “getting it wrong” and upsetting you. But, the truth is, they can’t really get it wrong (unless they bugger off to watch Taskmaster while you’re crowning) since, when it comes to giving birth, we’re all really just making it up as we go along.
Sweeping generalisation: everyone enjoys feeling useful and helpful, so here are a few ways you can get them involved while you get on with the small matter of bringing a whole fricking human being into the world using your body. Yeah yeah, you’re kind of busy here, but there’s no harm in helping them help you.