If you think about it, it's really not reasonable to expect the father to do so much heavy lifting, so to speak, during labor; after all, it's very unlikely he has attended a birth before (and every labor is different, so even limited prior experience may not be helpful). Books & classes aren't going to teach too many people, male or female, how to immediately & effectively respond to various behaviors in a laboring woman, or even to read them accurately enough to communicate a partner's needs to the staff. A doula is a professional labor assistant who will typically talk with both parents-to-be in advance about their ideas about labor & birth, their own family medical & emotional backgrounds, and develop a comfortable relationship; she (or he, sometimes) will usually then come to the couple's home as soon as labor seems to have started to provide physical & emotional support for both, although obviously the woman's immediate needs come first. Having someone around, from beginning to end, who has been present for tens or hundreds of births and who has taken the time to assess what a given couple's basic needs are is wonderful. I have known a few men who became petulant at the thought of another person being involved in something so "private" as birth, but I have never known a single man who, after having a doula attend the birth of his child, wasn't grateful for the additional experience & support.

Having said that, the downside is that doulas aren't cheap-- fees are often a few or several hundred dollars-- but unfortunately our current system does not provide adequate support for women in labor or thir partners, beyond lots of catheters, IVs, monitors, and mechanical/surgical intervention. And to be perfectly blunt, I suspect that the father-as-labor-"coach" policy promotes this in that inexperienced and emotionally attached observers tend to be a bit desperate for someone to take control of what to them is an out-of-the-ordinary situation, and women seem to be much more concerned about how they behave in front of their partners (and hospital staff) than might have been common in less technical times*.

*yes, that's speculation, and no, I'm not apologizing for it; confidence and adaptability in childbirth is the exception more than the norm.

Just a couple of points:

A doula is not the medical attendant at a birth; she is a support person for the woman. A monitrice is a medical professional who provides support as a doula does, and can check dilation, heartrate, etc., but they are rare. A doula does not replace a midwife or OB; she is simply there to help the parents cope with labor while medical personnel drift in & out, call the OB at the office, check the machines if any are in use, etc. She pays attention to the couple and acts as a liasion & comforter, but is not in fact a birth attendant.

The technique most commonly used to relieve shoulder dystocia is called the Gaskin maneuver, after the famous *lay midwife* who developed it, which is a point worth pondering. Umbilical cords are often around the neck, and only when it is very short and/or wrapped multiple times is it likely to be a problem, and even when it is a problem a decelerating fetal heart rate and/or a slowed descent usually give ample warning before there is a crisis. There are certainly serious problems that can develop during labor, but neither of those are typically all that terrible, although I suppose that a homebirth ambulance transport for a laboring woman forced to kneel with her butt in the air would be pretty unpleasant. Even in a hospital, though, repositioning the mother and other nonsurgical techniques often help.

I think what's so amusing, though, is that so many men chimed in with the drama and fury, their fears and assumed near-tragedies, of their own experiences and didn't seem to notice the extent to which they were supporting the point of the article, and-- to a lesser extent-- the positions of those of us who think birth is overmedicalized at least partly because it makes underinformed & anxious men feel better to have the professionals hauling out all the technology money can buy. For people like me, though, it's nice to share the miracle of birth with a partner, etc., but it's not a good enough reason to turn one's body over for slicing & dicing just because he or someone else is freaking out over bodily fluids/moaning/whatever instead of assessing a given situation calmly and trying low-tech solutions first whenever possible.

makes such a project pointless, anyway-- it doesn't matter how many other women's pheromones I'm exposed to on a daily basis, if I'm taking birth control pills, then my period starts on day 24 (day 3 of the placebos) regardless.

The right wing excels at media management, and when things get rough, it always makes more sense to lowball expectations and declare a victory when those expectations are exceeded, however barely. If they can hold the Senate by one and keep Democratic House gains to twenty or so, expect Kristol and company to roll out a congressional spin to parallel Bush's 2004 "mandate."

but aside from some old urban machines that mostly work over local challengers, we're not exactly fraudulent types overall-- it could be out of naivete or even a lack of a powerful enough ideology to drive us to crime, but generally we do like to believe that an engaged voting public is the main indicator of a healthy democracy. Plus, we're just too damned uncoordinated to cheat effectively.