Dads-To-Be: Grab a Leg and Make a Playlist

A basic guide to creating a stellar labor playlist

Photo by on

Face it, as a dad-to-be, you are completely helpless. You won’t be able to help push, you won’t be able to administer the epidural (in fact, you’ll be banished to a chair in a distant corner while it is administered), you won’t be able to do much of anything.

That’s just in delivery.

Wait until you get home where the list of things you can’t help with grows as long as a CVS receipt. You’ll likely grapple with feeling like a spectator while wanting nothing more than to be the starting quarterback. The feeling can be overwhelming and it can be lonely.

So, focus on your time and energy now — while you’re preparing to welcome your little miracle into the world — focusing on the things you can do: grab a leg and make a playlist.

Your role during the delivery will be mostly relegated to holding back one of your partner’s legs while interjecting words of love and encouragement strategically between contractions (beginners tip: avoid platitudes at the height of pushing… that doesn’t help anybody). Your back is going to hurt.

You may spend hours (my wife pushed for 3 with our first daughter) helping force your partners body together at the middle as if she were an…