1. should men be aloud in the delivery room?
South Africa Experience Blog
South Africa Experience Blog question by stacy heart: should men be aloud in the
delivery room?
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Page last updated at 11:59 GMT, Wednesday, 25 November 2009
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Should dads be in the delivery room?
By Clare Murphy
Health reporter, BBC News
Dad and baby
Would it have been better if he wasn’t there?
It was once imparted to the father over the phone, yet now it’s men themselves who often tell
their exhausted partner the sex of the child she has just delivered. But could men be more of a
hindrance than a help in the delivery room?
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2. French obstetrician Michel Odent says yes, and even blames fathers for an increasing rate of
births by Caesarean section.
At a debate hosted this week by the Royal College of Midwives, Mr Odent will argue against
what he dubs “the masculinisation of the birth environment”.
The presence of an anxious male partner in the labour room makes the woman tense and slows
her production of the hormone oxytocin, which aids the process of labour, so the French doctor
contends.
This, he says, makes her much more likely to end up on the operating table having an
emergency Caesarean section.
“Having been involved for more than 50 years in childbirths in homes and hospitals in France,
England and Africa, the best environment I know for an easy birth is when there is nobody
around the woman in labour apart from a silent, low-profile and experienced midwife,” he says.
“Oxytocin is the love drug which helps the woman give birth and bond with her baby. But it is
also a shy hormone and it does not come out when she is surrounded by people and
technology. This is what we need to start understanding.”
He will be debated by Duncan Fisher, a leading advocate for fathers, who, while pressing for
more preparation for fathers, argues they are there because women want them to be – “and we
should trust mothers’ instincts”.
Here we come
Certainly men’s appearance on the labour ward does co-incide with a rising number of
caesarean births – although ironically their arrival was in part a backlash against doctor-led,
highly-medicalised care in favour of a more woman-centred approach.
In the 1960s only about a quarter of men in the UK attended the birth of an infant, today it is well
over 90%.
There are many reasons why the number of emergency Caesarean sections has risen …none of
which have anything to do with the presence of dads
Patrick O’Brien
Consultant obstetrician
It is seen as an important rite of passage for any involved father, as well as a marker of social
progress – the less developed a country, the more likely childbirth is to be seen as a woman’s
business best conducted behind closed doors.
“But I think the other issue is the lack of one-to-one care of women by midwives,” says Winnie
Rushby of Doula UK, an organisation which provides birthing support from experienced, but
non-medically trained women. “Fathers have been called on to provide that help.
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3. “Some of them are very attuned to the emotional and psychological needs of their partner. But if
they are shocked by bodily fluids and very agitated by the pain they see her in, this could play
on her mind and stop her psychologically entering the place she needs to be to deliver the baby
– the birthing ‘zone’, if you like.
“We’ve gone from men not being there to virtually all men being there. We need to find a new
medium, where there is no shame in discussing whether the father should be there or not.
Women need to start asking if they really do want him there – and if so, is he prepared for what
will go on.”
Staying home
In fact, the greatest advocate of putting men in the mix was US doctor Robert Bradley, who in
1962 published Father’s Presence in Delivery Rooms. This was a review of 4,000 cases when
husbands were present.
Some partners will not feel comfortable themselves in providing physical and emotional support
during labour
Elizabeth Duff
National Childbirth Trust
He concluded, quite contrary to Dr Odent, that the husband’s presence as a so-called “birth
coach” actually helped the woman to relax. “With husbands coaching, we have more than 90%
totally unmedicated births. No other approach comes near to that figure,” he wrote.
Iran only recently allowed fathers into the delivery room after the health ministry in Tehran
asked doctors to reduce the number of Caesarean births.
At 70% it has been among the highest in the world, and has been explained largely by
women’s fear of childbirth. Bringing in the men, it was hoped, would provide women with the
reassurance they needed to deliver their baby without surgery.
Whether some men do in fact aid or
South Africa Experience Blog best answer:
Answer by Dr. Teddy™
Of course the father should be allowed in the delivery room.
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