Was your father present in the delivery room at your birth?

[undeterred]

[undeterred]

1. No dads were allowed in the delivery room in the fifties

I presume he was in the waiting room watching television.

[ronnykmarshall]

39. Same in the 60's

my dad was watching a boxing match on TV.

[trotsky]

2. No, but I was not only present for both of my children's births...

I actually helped deliver them. Probably the two biggest highlights of my life.

[merh]

3. I don't know, I had my eyes closed.

I know he was there when I was conceived! :silly:

[Lavender Brown]

4. No, it was a really complicated delivery

My mom didn't even get to hold me until a day or two after I was born :(

[Burma Jones]

5. He's a Physician, was in med school at the time, so they let him in

[lenidog]

6. I don't remember I was kinda too young at the time

[SCDem]

7. No

He was in the waiting room watching a movie with Sally Fields where she was having a horrible delivery. My mother was in the delivery room and had me in no time flat with no pain. When my dad finally came to see my mom he had an enormous amount of respect and sympathy for her because of the movie he just watched.

I think not having him in the delivery room worked to my mom's advantage!!

[Left Is Write]

8. No.

[madrchsod]

9. 1947- he was in the waiting room

reading a magazine smoking a cigarette.....

[noonwitch]

11. 1964-watching football and smoking a cigar

If hospitals had bars, he would have been there.

[Solly Mack]

10. No

He was in the waiting room and then bitched because I had red hair, curly hair.

(the red fell out within weeks and came back blonde and straight)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. More than that.

He DID the delivery -- no, I'm not Ahnuld's son in "Junior". He... hell, how do I say it? He did what an obstetrician or midwife does.

No hospital either -- at home.

[Kathleen04]

13. Yep--1986

There's a video..yikes.. :scared:

[mr_hat]

14. My dad was on a bender in another state. Not dry on Sunday, see?

[edbermac]

15. My dad was there, but not my mother...

It's a long story...

[all.of.me]

35. i want to hear it!

[Benhurst]

16. No, but Abe Lincoln dropped by. NT

[undeterred]

17. ...

:rofl:

[Benhurst]

40. Thanks

:hi:

[AngryAmish]

18. Hell no

He was where he belonged, in the bar down the street doing shots and chain smoking.

[luvLLB]

19. with all the drugs they used to use, my mother was barely there.

[Califooyah Operative]

43. .

.

[Xithras]

20. Nope, it wasn't allowed.

In fact, he complains to this day that he wasn't even allowed to hold me until we were released from the hospital. He worked as a laborer while he was still in college (when I was born), and the nurses decided that he was too "unsanitary" to hold a newborn. Even though he was wearing his sunday finest, his calloused hands made him "unfit" in their opinions. They actually had the gall to recommend to my mother that he NOT be allowed to hold me until the callouses went away.

To my mothers credit, she drove the car home...while my dad sat in the passenger seat holding me all the way back to their house (this was in the early 70's, before seatbelts, carseats, and airbags were an issue).

[Catchawave]

21. Mine was on a ship in the South Pacific....

...some little conflict we were involved with in the 40's :p

[ChaoticSilly]

22. Hell no

My father wouldn't even take off work to pick my mother & I up from the hospital. We had to get a ride from a neighbor.

[gollygee]

23. No

he was watching a Univeristy of Michigan/Ohio State football game on TV in the waiting room, and keeping the doctor up to date on the score.

[JitterbugPerfume]

29. no one was present at my birth

just me and mom I was born at home and daddy wasn't home that evening

[NuckinFutz]

24. Other..I was born in the labor room...

It was 1964. Dad was there. If Mom had made it to the delivery room, he would not have been there. I guess you could say I was in a hurry to make my entrance.

[madmom]

25. I was born at home, my father helped deliver me.

[Ariana Celeste]

26. "Other" because,

my biological father died in a car accident when my mum was just a few weeks pregnant with me. But, my step dad was there. My mum was 22 and ended up remarrying very quickly because she didn't know what else to do. They divorced after 9 years but he is still there for me to this day. :)

[Jokerman]

27. Not unless they were serving beer in the delivery room. n/t

[SarahB]

28. Yes, born in 1972.

It was (and still is) a very profound experience for him.

[Aristus]

30. My dad was 13,000 miles away in Vietnam when I was born.

I was born nine months to the day after my dad left; so I guess I was a going-away present from my mom to my dad, or vice-versa. ;-)

[Radio_Lady]

31. In May 1939, I have no idea where the F* he was.

Probably in the waiting room, or having a drink somewhere. Naw, they were very much in love when I was born, 13 months after they married in April 1938. My mother used to kid around by saying, "We were married in April, and you were born in May -- <<pause>> of the following year!" Nowadays, none of that would matter. My stepdaughter graduated college and got married in June 1985 and had her first child in October, of the same year. I was told my stepgranddaughter used to draw herself in her Mommy's "tummy" on wedding pictures of her parents. Later, my stepdaughter advised my daughter to wait a while after college and marriage before having kids -- and she did!

"In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now, heaven knows, anything goes..."

From Cole Porter's song...

[Blue Diadem]

32. No dad's allowed in the 50's, hubby was there in 74,76 but not in 79.

I had switched Dr's and hospitals. Their policy was different, if you did't have a lamaze certificate, daddy wasn't allowed..even though he'd been through it two times.

I was able to watch my granddaughter be born, thanks to my daughter and her then-hubby saying I could. Things sure have changed, Dr's and Nurses didn't even tell us to leave when there were problems..they just rushed around us.

[VelmaD]

33. Sort of...

My dad worked in the hospital where I was born. Because the x-ray department was so small at the time he spent the day running back and forth between the delivery room and x-ray. Fortunately they were pretty close to each other. :)

[all.of.me]

34. no. my dad was married, but not to my mom

so i imagine he was having a nice dinner at home with his/my other family while i was born at 8 pm back in January of 1954. neither of my parents have ever seen me.

[Samurai_Writer]

49. Your mother might have seen you

Even if she was knocked out during delivery, some birthmoms did get a chance to see their infants before relinquishing for adoption.

Hugs from a birthmom,
Bella

[all.of.me]

51. thanks

i found my mother over a year ago, but she has not chosen to speak with me yet. i finally did make contact with my half sister in the fall, and got a LOT of information. part of it was that she never saw me.

i read your story on your website. it brought me to tears. what a tough row to hoe, this triad thing, eh?

cheers to ALL of us!

[deadparrot]

36. Yeah.

I'm an 80's C-section baby.

He made my mom hyperventilate when they were wheeling her out of the OR and he said, "Wow. Look at all that blood."

:)

[Mrs_Beastman]

37. They sent my dad out of the room when things got 'complicated'

and after my mom had a near death experience(her words), a Cesarean and a month in intensive care for me...everything turned out well!

[ChickMagic]

38. Nope. Not in the 50's.

He was in the pharmacy buying Paregoric for his irritable colon. Then, after 21 hrs of labor, complained that I had big feet. Back then, they were proud of anything that would keep you from touching your baby at all. Germs, you know.

[doc03]

41. No, but would you believe the hospital bill was around $50

in 1948.

[Seneca]

42. No

But he was around during the conception, thank goodness!

[Lady Effingbroke]

44. Probably not.

:shrug:

[Blue_In_AK]

45. I don't think so. I was born in 1946 and dads weren't allowed...

However my dad was with my stepmother when my two little brothers were born in 1957 and 1960. It was all very new and avant garde then to do natural childbirth with fathers present.

[xmas74]

46. He was in the Air Force, stationed in South Korea at the time.

I was born stateside so no, he was not there.

[Dervill Crow]

47. No. I'm old.

[undeterred]

48. kick! for fathers

[Bridget Burke]

50. I doubt it--not in the late 40's.

He was probably smoking in the waiting room--back when hospitals supplied ashtrays. Or maybe he slipped around to the corner bar for a quick one.

[deutsey]

52. My father wasn't present much after the conception part

[RebelOne]

53. I was born way back in the dark ages

when fathers weren't allowed in the delivery room. And knowing my father, he was probably not even at the hospital.