Henry’s story
Life as a pregnant father is a little scary. On one hand, what's going on seems totally out of your control. On the other
hand, there is such joy in knowing that you helped make a baby! And, as a man, people expect you to be strong and macho, but
there's so much to worry about and so many feeling that you'd like to share. There's just so many emotions to go through -
not too stereotypically manly, I guess.
I worried about things like, "Is it okay to have sex with my wife, or is it going to hurt the baby? If I wasn't careful,
would that child be born with a dent in the top of it's head?" Sound mad but it went through my head, common sense, and plenty
of reading prevailed
My advice to my fellow men is Read!! pregnancy sites, books, and attend childbirth classes with your wife. I learnt so
much and it really helped me a lot. It helped me be more in tune to what's going on, and gave me more of a clue about what
was to be expected of me at the birth.
I don't know about other men, but I spent entirely too much time worrying about everything. I became obsessed with Sophie’s
diet and she did not appreaciate my input, one thing to avoid if you can. It is a fine line between supporting and interfering
and I cross
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Tim' s story
In the final months of my wife's pregnancy, people would corner me at work and with happy gleeful looks say things like,
"So, are you enjoying your last few days?", as if I was on death row.
I realised that there are lot of people who fear parenthood as the end to thier ambitions. Sure enough privately,
I started compiling a mental list of activities that I'd never done and now would never get round to doing. Walk to north
pole, shark fishing, joyriding, going on a Club 18-30 holiday! I quickly realised that all these things actually sounded crap,
if I had wanted to do them I would have and there are no rules about what you can and can‘t do when you are a dad, are
there?.
I was warned that all the extra oestrogen pumping around my partner would make her unpredictable, to put it
politely. But instead of living with the axe murderer I had expected pregnancy actually turned her into a jibbering wreck
in the nicest possible way, she would cry at the drop of a hat. It was nice to see a softer side but it didn’t last
long my wonderful forceful independent wife was back in a matter of weeks after the birth
