Well, I guess you don't want to hear the story of the midwife (?) being late, forcing me to help my wife to give birth to our first born son all alone?
PS: No joke, and THAT experience changed every perspective...
Well, I'd like to hear that story.
That's a simple one, and I will try, even if I am not sure with all the technical terms (I am not an gynologist), so sorry for any mistaktes:
My wife and I decided not to go to a hospital for the birth of our first baby but to do a birth at home, which may sound unusual, but that was (and is) quite common, and the risk for the baby and the mother is the same or even lower as in hospitals. And we did that only bescause the doctors agreed with that, in any other case we would have been gone to hospital.
We called the midwife when the contractions set in, and she asked us to call again when the contractions would come every 4 minutes. But somehow we missed that point - or the contractions pushed the "fast forward" button - and suddenly my wife had the contractions every 3 minutes. We called the midwiffe again, and she hit the road, but it was 15 miles trip for her and believe it or not, she was caught by a closed railroad gate. No joke.
At a certain point my wife said: "I think the head is already showing up", and so it was. A few minutes later I had a little baby (one very little thing) in my hands - the birth itself was quit flawless and fast -, not knowing what to with it, and my wife went: "Go and take a look in the book" (some "birth preparing" kind of book), and there it was written to put the littel one one the mothers belly and to put a blanket over it, and so I did.
A few minutes later the midwife came in - quote: "Men can be useful - sometimes" -, and first thing she wanted to know was: Is it a boy or girl. I completely forgot to look for after the birth...
Thank god it was a healthy boy ("Ariel"), and cutting the umbilical cord was a piece of cake after that birth...
Ariel is four years old now, and his younger brother Aeneas was born at home too, but this time the (same) midwife was with us two hours prior to the birth. I was extremly happy about that, because the second birth was a long and really painful thing for my wife, and it was a real relief that the midwife was with us even if the burden and the pain and all that laid on my wife, of course.
By the way, my stepson, 16 of age at that day, sat in his room during Ariels birth, playing World of Warcraft with his headphones on so he hadn't have to listen...