This is my gymnastic story…I was 8 and half month pregnant, at a large meeting and the only woman in the room. It was summer so I was wearing a maternity dress. D1 decided to move across my stomach. I was so close to term that you could actually see her hand and foot making bumps on my stomach. One young guy (clearly not married or had children) said out loud in the middle of meeting, “Holy crap!” Everyone stopped talking and just stared at my stomach. I quickly put a yellow notepad on my stomach.
When the first one was born, husband was interviewing for his first US job, and I was very happy - we needed his paycheck. I did not get an epidural - did not know it existed, and even if I did, I would not know how to ask for it in English. Husband was there for the second one - the delivery was very quick, so no epidural either. I was discharged six hours later - these were the days when insurance only covered one day of hospital stay. I remember being very happy to be back home so soon, took a quick shower, the baby was happily asleep, so I decided to take a car and go shopping. I was in a mall only 8 hours after going to a hospital to give birth - there is nothing like being young! 
That is funny, @oldfort. I remember my kid (when I was pretty much near term at the time) going nuts to the thumping music at a Pilobolus performance. I still remember it and can still even remember vividly the dress I had on, 28 years later!
I was there, and it turned into a C-section. I was allowed to stay because I had seen the movie at LaMaze class. This was a requirement for attending the surgery. I performed a useful function of talking to my wife and keeping her distracted while the baby was being cut out. I was there for the the 2nd one also, which was a scheduled C-section. I was fine to be there and share the experience, but honestly I don’t think it’s that big a deal. Much more important that you are around on a regular basis for the next 20 years or so.
Our mothers’ generation was knocked out and our fathers paced in the waiting room!
LOL, oldfort! A baggy lab coat was a godsent!
The young guy might have been watching too many Alien movies and worried about what might be coming next!
Having twins be active got crazy at times. I had no idea that alien-like limbs and parts would be moving around just under my skin, it was pretty wild. I remember thinking that they were must be thinking, “oh joy, joy” because it all seemed so happy.
Once I started laughing and couldn’t stop. I had looked at a really scandalous and censored Gary Larson cartoon from Prehistory of the Far Side. Maybe it had something to do with my abdominal muscles being stretched out over this giant thing but I just couldn’t stop. I finally asked H to sit on me.
My FIL was present at the birth of H, and hes 60.
However, the hospital( it actually was the OB, because he asked FIL if he wanted to come in, and he said, " sure", wasnt that progressive. MIL showed me a pamphlet she was given after delivery on how " formula improved on Mother Nature"!!
This! And then there were all the reports in the 70’s and '80’s about how how those babies (Us) probably has subtle brain damage from the drugs and if we wanted our children to not be damaged we should all do Lamaze deliveries. When I was expecting my first two I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t planning a drug free birth. Fortunately for me my body cooperated with easy deliveries and my husband was helpful during the classes. I loved how he practiced with me. Fortunately for him our actual time in the labor room totaled 15 minutes for the first two combined and 3 hours for the last one.
I hemorrhaged on the delivery table. In another generation, I would have been an unfortunate statistic. Think about that if you ever decide to have a baby at home. OP, I have a somewhat analogous situation in that I never breastfeed either of my kids. I have never felt a day of regret about that, and neither should you. You did what you thought was best, and you did the best you could. That’s all you can ask of yourself.
Lol oldfort.
ETA-Lol greenwitch.
One of my good friends is the president of a Doula organization here in Michigan… as much as she is a proponent of doulas/midwives/etc, I don’t think she’d agree with this.
That particular documentary has a very specific aim to it. Watch it with that in mind.
There are all kinds of in-betweens on the continuum of home birth and hospital birth. There are physicians out there that do home births, which is a step up from certified midwives. I’m sure they’re not very common, but there’s a group in the Chicago area that does them. And there are also hospital births handled by midwives and/or where doulas are allowed.
For high school kids, people never having been pregnant or given birth - they’re looking at things in health class ( post 76) and documentaries that may give a more sanitized version of things. Most pregnancies and deliveries do go well, luckily, but there are unfortunately complications at times ( as some of us have had). But women keep having babies and most of the time, it goes very, very well .
You just got married, no need to rush. However, we ARE looking forward to your stories of pregnancy and motherhood if and when you get there!
I remember when I found out I was pregnant with S the first thing I felt was a weird connection with the chain of womanhood before me who had carried on the human race. However different our lives may be with all the women of the past, this thing we have in common - at some core, earth level, we have carried humanity forward and given birth to the future. Literally ;).
@sylvan8798 I will share stories, no worries… in many, many years 
For now, you’ll all have to settle for stories of the furbaby I’m (hopefully) bringing home tomorrow 
^Lol, last week my 10-y-o Siberian husky pup was sick as a dog, as they say, and I spent part of at least one night dabbing her feverish head with wet paper towels in an attempt to lower a 104.7 degree fever. She didn’t appreciate so much and gave me a late night tongue-lashing. Having a sick dog is nearly as much work as having a sick child. Furbaby is a great place to start! and the name of furry addition is ???
@sylvan8798 I’ll PM so as not to further divert the thread
I was there for the birth of both our boys. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world! >:D<