Avoid chit chatting during labor contractions. This is highly annoying to a laboring woman.
Use a tennis ball or other massage balls or rollers to massage her back. Listen to her guidance. She may just want counter pressure applied to the lower back during hard labor contractions.
Do not forget that in addition to food for the laboring woman, food for dad is vitally important. Fruit and healthier snacks and drinks should not be forgotten. There have been many a times where the father forgets to eat or finds himself running out for food at 12 am midnight only to find cold stale fries and a old rubbery hamburger at some fast food restaurant. Know what’s in the kitchen…don’t ask her what’s in the kitchen for you to eat. She probably already has the food menu thought out in preparation for the birth and snack foods for the birth day are probably all ready to go.
Wear something comfortable. You will need to move around and help your wife a lot.
Monitor the amount of visiting people. Protect your laboring wife from unexpected “visitors” and “onlookers”. Labor is not a family reunion party. Discuss before hand who will be involved during the labor.
Monitor phone calls. Don’t chat on the phone during labor contractions or surf the web during contractions. Leave the iPhone or Droid mobile phone alone or in the other room so she doesn’t get annoyed at you paying attention to your email over her hard contractions. That would just about send her over the edge if you were mobile blogging or checking email while she was having a contraction. However, having a smart phone present during labor can offer some great benefits for the husband coach and the laboring woman: playing music, watching a movie, playing a game, keeping time, looking up a question about natural birth that may come along or provide the husband coach something to do while his laboring wife is resting/sleeping. Just be careful not to get caught up with the iPhone or Droid when your laboring wife needs you. Once hard labor starts, she’ll need your 100% attention.
Have a helper. Running errands, moving the car, going to get the children, calling people, heating up towels in the dryer or making coffee. You need to be able to tend to your wife.
Talk to your wife during labor. Don’t just sit there. Interact. Talk. Encourage. Pray. Listen and make wise decisions. Making eye contact with your wife is very important. Connect and let her know you can help her by being there for her. Coach her through the hard contractions. Help her breathe. Remember this natural childbirth is husband coached childbirth.
Encourage her during the pushing stage. She’s exhausted and needs some cheering on. Encourage her! Cheer her on and remind her the baby is almost here and it will all be over soon.
After the baby is born, you should congratulate and kiss her. Giving birth is an amazingly overwhelming experience.
Wives appreciate a card and flowers from their husbands especially after they have just given birth. Don’t underestimate the power of a simple card with a flower saying, “I love you….Thank you for being my wife and having my babies! Your beautiful and Amazing!”