ABSTRACT
Women approach labour with a variety of emotions ranging from 'confident' to 'terrified', determined largely by the attitudes and feelings they bring to the experience. Most deliveries now take place in hospital, and many women who would prefer a home birth are denied it. Women in labour experience heightened awareness, and become acutely, and quite properly, self-absorbed. Those attending women in labour hold a privileged position within the field of medicine. They are present at the climax of a nine-month period of anxiety and hope, at the moment when a couple becomes a family, and when the parents, the creators, come face to face with their creation. It is now commonplace for fathers to be present at the birth, and this is generally thought to be good practice. However, not all partners are equally helpful, and some may have anxieties about their ability to cope.
