Thank you!

The Big Day

The time has finally come! But do you know what to expect over the course of the next few hours? Labor can be broken down into four different stages; early, active, transition, and pushing

Early labor
This part of labor is the longest part. Early labor can last for several hours, during which you need to make sure to keep your wife hydrated, calm, and as comfortable as possible. The best way to tell when your wife enters the early stage of labor, is that her contractions will begin to occur at regular intervals; typically 10 minutes apart.

Active Labor
The second stretch of the labor process, active labor is usually shorter and more intense than early labor. Active labor is the stage in which you will want to head to the hospital or call your midwife/doctor to come to you. This stage can last for a few hours and your wife's contractions will be more intense and last up to a minute or so.

Transition
The transition stage is the wildest part of the labor process yet. The contractions will kick into over-drive lasting between 60 and 90 seconds and only being a few minutes apart. However, this is also the shortest stage lasting anywhere for 15 minutes to an hour. This is the fun sprint for your wife's body to prepare for childbirth.

Pushing
This stage of labor is the most intense yet. Unlike what is seen on T.V., this stage is not a quick one. Pushing can last up to an hour and a half in some cases. During this stage, you have a lot of work to do. You will need to be by your wife's side coaching her. It is very important to make sure that you keep your wife encouraged to keep going. Talk to her, tell her how proud you are and thank her for enduring this pain to bring your child into the world. The only time you should stop giving your wife encouraging words is if she tells you to shut up.

Couvade--by Eric Joshua

Pregnancy Period
As a father of two children, I have a lot of experience with pregnancy. The first few months of my wife’s pregnancy she underwent a lot of discomforts that affected me as well. These discomforts were body pains, heaviness, nausea, weakness, dizziness and vomiting due to hormonal changes. However, I experienced my wife pregnancy in two ways.

Nursing responsibilities

• Massaging her body aches every time she was in pain.
• Assisting her to the tub or shower.
• Helping to change her position when she’s sleeping.
• Positioning supporting pillow under the belly
• Prepared food for us.
• Assisting her to dress up.
• Driving her to clinics for checkups
  
  

The second experience was the feeling of being sympathetic to pregnancy also known as Couvade syndrome. Couvade syndrome is a term used to describe a situation in which an otherwise healthy man — whose partner is expecting a baby — experiences pregnancy-related symptoms. While some research suggests that Couvade syndrome (sympathetic pregnancy) is common, it isn't a recognized mental illness or disease (Todd B. Nippoldt, M.D., 2011)

Couvade syndrome condition

• The feeling of nausea.
• Loss of appetite.
• Dizziness.
• Mood swings.
• Weight gaining.

The uncomfortable feelings for both my wife and me lasted during the first three months. Several months later, she started to feel regular labor pains.. At times, I would cut sleep in the middle of night to rush my wife to the emergency room, only to  find out it was false labor pains.

However, some of the good experience that I enjoyed during this period were; the feeling of my child kicking from the womb, the joy of becoming a father, and the authority of selecting a name for my child. I continued to love and care my wife for the rest of the pregnancy until my child was born. As the doctors handed my child to me I was the happiest man in the world and I couldn't take my eyes away from her.

Bottom line, the pregnancy period can lead to difficult experience to fathers as well. In this period I learned a lot about pregnancy and its affects. Also I believe that my children are the priceless gift from God. Therefore, this belief kept me strong during the pregnancy period and I went through the all the tough times.

Author Eric Joshua.

Preparations

The time is soon approaching. Now, you will need to start focusing on getting the house and car prepared to bring home your child.

The Home
Setting up your house for your child is an important step; both for your child's safety and as a pivotal moment for you and your wife. One thing you may notice from your wife is the "nesting instinct". Women often start to focus on their surroundings and feel a strong urge to make everything perfect for the child. This is nothing to worry about, but it is good to know about so you can have a forewarning that this may happen. Personally I knew nothing about the "nesting instinct" and thought that the grandparents-to-be were over exaggerating with how my wife would act when it came time to start setting up the nursery. As I came to find out later, they were not.

The Nursery
This is the time in the pregnancy where you will actually get to do something productive. After the baby shower, you will hopefully have all sorts of new furniture, toys, and baby containment areas to set up. Setting up the big items--crib, play pin, swings, etc.--are a nice way for you to get to work and contribute to what will make up the majority of the places your baby will occupy.

The Car
Car seats are an absolutely crucial part of getting things ready for baby's coming home party. However, this is not as easy a task as you might think. How to set up a car seat properly is one of the most important things you will need to learn before your baby is born. In fact, the hospital is required by law to not allow you to take your child home until they have tested your car seat to make sure it is installed properly. But fear not, there is a website you can go to in order to find a location near you that will inspect you car seat for proper installation!

(Kevin Nelson, 2004)