Very interesting article.

great clip! I had to read the entire article. This was a memorable quote:

"Or another lady describing how the day after her husband had watched her deliver their child, he had fled to his hometown of Rome, and never returned again?"

My daughters father was present while I gave birth. Although my memory of it all is pretty fuzzy, I know he stood there arguing irrelevant things with me until he was asked to leave the room .. I don't know if it was his own anxiety contributing to that, but the stress definitely made the labor much more difficult!

My husband was present at the birth of our child, and was a calming factor. He was astute enough to leave me along during contractions, but we played Cribbage in between. He cut the cord.