You often hear how strong a woman has to be in order to give birth, and I give women all the credit in the world for going through what they have to when they bear a child.
Seeing what my wife went through, and the pain and suffering she had to endure, gave me a new found respect for her and made me love her even more.
She was instantly my idol whenever she gave birth to our daughter, and I definitely saw her in a new light, even though I already had an extreme amount of love for this woman.
However, what is often overlooked is the important role that a father must play in the pregnancy.
It is well-known that you want to keep your partner as stress-free as possible whenever she is pregnant, and of course you can do a number of things such as the dishes, laundry and keeping the house clean to help keep these levels low.
However, while she is pregnant, there are going to be a number of unexpected issues that you're going to have to deal with, and if you are expecting your first child not much can really prepare you for these things.
My father explained to me when I found out my wife was pregnant, that I was going to have to be mentally strong for her as well, and allow her to lean on me in the tough times.
I told him I understood, but I truly didn't understand until the day we left the midwife's place and had the biggest scare of our pregnancy.
Our midwife told us that if there was any problems with the ultrasound, that she would give us a call, but if there was not, that we wouldn't hear from her.
While I was ironically cleaning the house, she called and left a message before I could get to the phone.
My heart was racing, because I remember the words she had said to us before we left the office.
I went to get my wife, and we nervously waited for her to call back.
My wife had a number of fears going through her head, and I had to do everything I could to try and remain strong and assure her that things were going to be okay.
Her face was turning ashen, she was so stressed out.
It only took about 15 minutes for the midwife to callback, but it seemed like forever.
Apparently, my wife had a low-lying cervix, and we just had to wait for it to move, which thankfully it did as the pregnancy went along.
This is just a an example of instances that happened during the pregnancy that gave us a scare.
As a father, you will have to learn how to never panic whenever an issue arises, and be the rock that your wife can lean on in these times.