Personally, I believe it’s terrible when men refuse to be present during their partner’s vaginal birth due to fear of passing out, trauma, or worse, losing sexual attraction. As a medical student, I witnessed a vaginal birth today, yes it was intense and scary, but not “traumatic”, as long as you have no fear of blood. Was quite shocked that in this country pretty much EVERY woman gives birth without a loved one for support. But today my partner said it’s understandable for men to feel traumatized or even lose sexual attraction after seeing birth and blood, and I was offended. He argued that being offended is unfair because watching someone you love go through something so painful can be extremely distressing, and that it’s not selfish to avoid situations that could leave a lasting impact. I want to understand his perspective, but I still feel that genuine love means being present, and that a partner should be able to separate childbirth from sexual attraction. And I definitely don’t want to go through that without holding my partners hand, but he said well, we’ll see… submitted by /u/Yokattaaa
Originally posted by u/Yokattaaa on r/AskMen