A woman online needs help. She is preparing for the birth of her first child, and the one person who she could've expected to be in the delivery room has no desire to do so.
Her husband wants nothing to do with the birthing of the baby, and wants to be out of the delivery room altogether because, in his words, it's "gross."
The woman wrote to Slate's Dear Prudence column asking for advice.
According to Café Mom, the husband just doesn't think the process is gross, he says in his culture, men really have nothing to do with the actual birth of the baby, and therefore he's worried about potentially getting in the way or causing more harm than good.
She says beyond this, her husband is "supportive and wonderful," but "e's shared a cocktail of thoughts that all combine to affect his thinking: he's not sure how he can help, he's afraid of getting paralyzed and ending up doing or saying something counterproductive."
She wants him in there, though! She writes that she "knows that they have time to work things out and that there are many more conversations to be had, but she can't help but feel let down that he doesn't understand her needs."
Of course, Prudence, like probably everyone else reading this, was immediately on the woman's side.
Prudence wrote, "Let me get this straight. You have to deliver a baby, with all the pain and risk that entails, and he is not willing to just stand there, totally intact and experiencing no physical discomfort?'"
She continued suggesting that he is just showing his weakness, and isn't the right person for the job, adding that the woman should get her mother, friend, or a doula.
Basically, anyone but him.
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