Husband "squeamish"

[~Debbie~]

i was also going to suggest the dvd Being a Dad. Never seen the pink kit.
I think if you get him to stay at your head end, then you should be fine, and he might surprise you at the time by getting more involved.
On the other hand, me - DH loves that sorta stuff, loves the real life medical shows. I have had to tell him that, if by chance i have a c/s - there is to be absolulty no peeking.

[Aranah]

Star,

I have recently given birth, and my DP had the same concerns before the birth. It was his first child and first birth as well, he hadn't even watched any on TV or anything as he was so squeamish.

What I did beforehand was make an agreement with him that if he was 'freaking out' or needed time out in any way, that it was okay with me for him to step out of the room for 10 minutes to gain his composure. Because we had this agreement, he didn't feel the amount of pressure he was feeling initially about if he couldn't handle it and it helped him feel calmer about the whole situation. HE was very panicked about how he was going to handle me being in pain most of all and talked non stop through the pregnancy about me getting an epidural (I didn't want one) and even to the point of pushing about a c-section because he was so scared!

He stipulated from the beginning he didn't want to be up at that end or to cut the cord.

The way it turned out - he didn't need to leave the room at all, I had a 14 hour labour and he was WONDERFUL. I truly feel that he was in labour with me, he helped me through every pain, every push and in the end it actually felt like he had physically helped me push the baby out, that's how close we were.

He didn't go down 'that' end. I birthed the head on all fours leaning over a bed and he was on the other side of the bed holding me close and telling me what I needed to hear. If he had have gone down that end during the pushing, I probably would have freaked out as I needed him to be there with me. The cord issue didn't come up as there was a (rare) complication in the end and they needed to take the baby away straight away so they cut it very quickly. I had to move onto a bed to lie on my back just after the head was birthed, and DP witnessed the rest of the birth but because of the circumstances around it as it was an emergency situation, he was traumatised by it afterward and was unable to hold the baby for some time as he was shaking for several hours afterward.
So in my case, I had a very squeamish man, but this didn't for a second stop him from being a wonderful support. He was everything I needed him to be.

Good luck hun.