Not sure where else to post this. My husband and I have been together for almost 5 years. We have a toddler. When I gave birth to our first child he was an extremely supportive birth partner. We met with a doula regularly together, he would make me raspberry leaf tea, made sure I ate, went to every single appointment, advocated for me loudly multiple times during birth, etc. The doctor who was on call at the time did not have the best bedside manner so my husbands advocacy was instrumental in making things go as I wanted them to. Things have drastically changed in our relationship since then. As my previous post recounts he was talking to other women about a year ago. We very rarely have sex and it genuinely astounded me when I got pregnant because when we had sex it had been about a month. When I learned I was pregnant it was a complete shock as I had an IUD at the time. His first reaction was to tell me he was leaving, that I am ruining his life, that I need to have an abortion, and that I don’t love our daughter because we cannot afford a second kid and bringing another child into our family would “ruin” her life.
He stopped pressing an abortion within a week but he told me he would likely be very unhappy in our new life and made it clear he did not want the baby. Although his attitude has since becomes more neutral (doesn’t snt ask about my pregnancy but is not outwardly negative when i mention the baby or my prenatal health) he has only been to two appointments with me this pregnancy. He says it’s because he needs to care for our toddler which I get, but before I was on maternity leave he would regularly (about once per week) ask my mom to watch our daughter so he could go golfing with his friend. I have not made any moves to make childcare arrangements for him so he can attend the appointments as he is a grown ass man who has proven he is capable of making childcare arrangements for himself, and he has taken no initiative to do so for these appointments.
Lastly, he has not been emotionally supportive of me this pregnancy. He games until 4 and sleeps until 11/12 leaving me as the only caretaker for our toddler.
Anyways, is it appropriate to not have him in the room for this delivery? I am honestly really scared to give birth alone. The thought of my mom there is uncomfortable to me as well. I love and have a good relationship with her but feel so uncomfortable with the idea of being nude and birthing in front of her! I don’t have any sisters or close female friends and I do not know what to do. Any advice would be much appreciated. People who have birthed alone, what was that like for you? How do I even begin this discussion with my husband? Should I suck it up and let him be there?
submitted by /u/JuniorKaleidoscope14
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