What I Was Thinking When My Wife Gave Birth

by Shannon Duffy and John Zakour, co-authors of the book The Couples Guide to Pregnancy & Beyond: He Says, She Says for GALTime

When the actual birth of your baby comes, you get hit with both a flood of adrenaline and thoughts. I thought I’d share mine with readers... thus giving the women out there a look into the guy’s psyche and to let the men know it’s okay to panic a little; it will all work out.

He Says:

Here is some of what I was thinking as my wife went through a C-section to give birth:
 

Oh my God! Please let her be healthy…

Please let the baby be healthy.

I’ll go to church every day, well every week, well…a lot more than I do now…

Oh man, man. I’m going to be a dad!

I’ll have a baby to take care off!!

Yikes! I can barely take care of myself. Now a baby!

I’ll never sleep again.

Oh my God, I’m such a jerk for thinking of sleeping at a time like this.

What if the doctor’s not any good?

I should have gone to medical school not graduate school.

What am I thinking? I couldn’t do this for a living!

Wait, I was supposed to tell her to breathe.

But she’s sleeping with the meds now so telling her to breathe won’t do any good.

Wait is she breathing? Yes, okay she is.

Am I breathing? I must be or I’d faint.

Man, that would be so embarrassing fainting now.

Well, at least the floors here are clean.

What am I thinking?!

I hope she’s okay. I hope the baby is okay.

I hope I can do this!

I don’t really have much choice.

Crying! I hear crying. It’s not me. It’s not my wife.

Oh, my freaking god, I’m a freaking dad! We did it!

Well, mostly my wife and the doctors did it—but I didn’t faint and that has to count for something.

I can do this, right?

RELATED: He Says, She Says: Fears During Pregnancy

She Says:

I’m impressed that throughout all those thoughts, you didn’t think about sex once! And they say that’s all men think about… And you didn’t faint. Not fainting is good. The thought of having a caesarian section can be scary, so your fears about your wife were certainly warranted. But, she made it through and you guys raised a pretty nifty son.

By the time labor happens, you and your wife will have already been through such a unique journey. Sure, millions of people go through pregnancy and childbirth, but the experience is surreal. The nine months leading up to the moment a baby is born is nothing compared to those moments just before they arrive.

More from GalTime:

What to do When You're NOT Expecting
Pregnant and Packing for the Hospital
The Pregnant Pantry
Fighting Mom Instincts: Growing Up and Growing a Pair