Husbands!

There are some men (and women) who cannot deal with pain, body fluids, etc. If the woman was not upset, maybe this was best for both of them.

You wouldn't want to have to pick him up from the floor!

I did L&D for about 2 1/2 years, and I never saw that one! It usually was the opposite scenario: the reluctant husband being told- "You stay right here! You got me in this condition!"

Still funny after all these years.

Just my $.02.

Haha! Exactly what I would be saying! I guess it's not based on certain ethnicities?

I've seen it a few times, usually with a non-American couple.

Different strokes...I guess. All I can say is, the wife doesn't wanna be in pain either, but she doesn't have a choice, does she?

My husband almost passed out:eek: One of the nurses had to sit him down.

How times change - when I was a student nurse fathers were pacing the halls, denied access to most labor rooms and all delivery rooms!

My husband was to afraid to see me in pain and the blood (even though he used to work in a slaughter house cleaning up after blood and guts there) he almost fainted while i was just in labor. Since he was and still is chicken i had my friend come into the room for all 3 of my c-sections (I still tease him to this day about it also, maybe thats why we have them)

Birth has been a "women only" event in many cultures throughout history. Personally, if a man didn't want to be there because it's against his culture, or he thought he couldn't handle it, I wouldn't condemn him.

Now, if he left because he was too busy or didn't want to be bothered, I think a castration would be in order.

I'm not buying into this afraid of blood thing. What if the mom is afraid of blood, can she leave too ? Furthermore, you usually have quite a few months to prepare and overcome. Whether the husband is present during birth is not for me to decide of course, I just get the feeling some guys take the easy way out of what might be a very uncomfortable situation.