Dr. Litrel's Advice for Expectant Dads

Women get tons of advice when they're pregnant but what about the Dads? Even though they're not preparing to give birth to the new bundle of joy, they play a huge role in the months leading up to the event. So we wondered...if Dr. Litrel could sit down and talk with a Dad-to-be, what kind of advice would he give him? Read on for some good advice on what to do, and from his personal experience, what not to do! 

Q: What is your advice for expectant dads?

MJL: Can I just talk about this?

Q: Sure!

MJL: I think that the great thing about becoming a father is that you get to fully appreciate how lucky men have it verses how women have it. Women do all the suffering, they do all the sacrifice and we kind of just sit there, get nervous, get frightened, but we don’t have to experience the rigorous part of it. Women have much tougher lives than men do.

Q: That makes a lot of sense and it leads us right into our next question. As a father yourself and as an experienced OB, what is the best advice that you can give to expectant dads to support their wives?

MJL: Men really get an appreciation for how difficult women have it. Because, especially for first time dads and first time moms, they see first-hand, living with a woman, just how much she is suffering, how much her body is changing, and how scared she is. I think that fathers or husbands need to listen to their wives and support their wives. They need to put up with their emotional outbursts (laughs). They need to tell them that they’re beautiful even when their bodies are changing. Because women take a big hit with their self-esteem. Their body changes in front of the mirror. Women worry in the back of their mind that they’re not attractive anymore. I think that as a husband, when you are in a relationship with a woman, who is sacrificing her body to grow your child inside her body, I think that you should really appreciate the wonders of her beauty.

Q: Ok great. Now any advice of what an expectant Dad should not do?

MJL: They shouldn’t do what I did! I remember this really well. Ann was about 25 weeks pregnant when she leaped out of bed in pain. I didn't know what was happening. The more she screamed, the more scared I got. It was three in the morning when I jumped out of bed and was like, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Cursing in her darn it, you know, Christian way, she said she had a leg cramp. I took her leg and held it, trying to get rid of the cramp. After that first time, it happened a few more times. Always a leg cramp. It was never that she was bleeding, not that the baby was coming, all the stuff that I was afraid of. Then after a while (laughs) when she would jump out of bed with a leg cramp, I would just grab her pillow and put it over my head so I didn’t have to hear her (huge laugh). I was a resident at Grady Hospital and very tired at the time. So my advice, definitely don’t do that!