Should fathers have the right to be present at the birth of their child?

Question

Or should it be up to the mother, and why? :-)

Answer 1

It should be up to her if she wants him present or not.  After all, she is the one going through the business of labour (though if she has any sense, she'll have a caesarian).  And I don't believe a man should feel obliged to attend the birth if he doesn't want to.

Answer 2

I believe that as long as the father does not pose a health or safety risk to the mother or child, then he should have the right to be present for the birth of his child.  

But i also believe that if that father at any point during the delivery, becomes a health or safety risk for either the mother or the child, the mother or healthcare professionals should have the right to remove the father from the delivery room, or have him removed.

Answer 3

Of course they should, after all its the women's choice to have the baby, but its entirely up to him if he wants to be at the birth or not.

Answer 4

Of course, assuming the pair are in a good relationship. my generation are hands on fathers, we do just as much mothering as the mothers, being at the birth has a life times benefit for the father and child.  I certainly won't be told that a child is my equal responsibility and that I can't attend the birth in the same breath. Grounds for divorce.

The baby is not the mother's property.

However, if the mother is prone to violence and verbal abuse, the father is probably better off not being there.

Answer 5

Well, is the baby his too? Then yes.

Answer 6

I find it sad and disturbing that this question is being asked....

In most cases, I cannot think of a reason why he would be denied the opportunity --  the exceptions being rape and DV.

If we really have to discuss these issues, then too many people are creating babies who should not be having s*x in the first place.

Answer 7

Does he have the right to be able to see his child once it has been born? Yes, he does, but I think the mother should have the say in who gets to witness her pushing it out. If by chance she has a strained relationship with the father, his presence while she is delivering might be stressful, and putting additional stress on a woman who is giving birth is never a good thing. If this were the case, any man who truly loves his child would not want to possibly jeopardize the health of his child by inducing stress on the woman giving birth to it by demanding to be there against her wishes.

Answer 8

Good question but I think they should be allowed as long as the mother says so.

Answer 9

we're constantly hearing that it takes two to make a baby, and that fathers should play the full role (and pay), so yes. But in practice I guess if it were me and my wife really didn't want me present, I would respect that. I think most women would actually like the father present though.

Answer 10

Yes, he should have the right to be present at the birth of his child. And the right to carry a camera too. Period.

Answer 11

Depends on the relationship she has with the father, and what relationship she wans with the father.  Denying him the right do be in there is kinda wrong.  Unless it will be too stressful for her to have him in there, it could make for a very agonizing labor (physically for her and the baby).  Life happens, and when it does it changes people.  In my opinion it is important for the father to be there.

Answer 12

In a perfect world, yes, but if it comes down to a situation where the father and the mother are antagonistic or there has been relationship violence in the past, and she is dead set against having him there, then no...he should not (and does not) have the legal right to be present at what is a confidential medical procedure between a woman and her doctor.

One would hope it doesn't come to that in very many situations.

Answer 13

In a perfect world which this is not.  No the father doesn't have a right to be in the room.  It depends on a lot of things; the relationship between mother and father and the role that he plans on taking in the child's life.  This is a difficult and painful time for a women and she should not have to suffer through doing it with lets say a misogynist in the room; although she shouldn't have slept with him in the first place.  If the couple is together (married or otherwise) yes the man should be in the room.  However I have seen women get angry during child birth at a man they love dearly so does the man really want to be in there if the women hates him?  She is much more likely to strike out at him.  Also if she hates him he has no right to look down there and if he doesn't have the right to look down there why be in the room?  

More description is needed on the actual facts though to give a better answer.

Answer 14

Would you cop on lads - the only reason this would be an issue is if there was animosity between the parents. The fact they had s*x 9 months previously does not give a man the right to be present for the birth of the child. It's an intrusion of the woman's rights to privacy!! And that stress doesn't help mother or baby during labour

Answer 15

Yes, because it's his child too.

Answer 16

Up to the mother. I'm not a my body my choice person when it comes to abortion. However it is her p*ssy its coming out of, what if they are no longer together and she has a new BF?

Or she doesn't want to be seen like that?

Yes he should have the right if they are still together.

Answer 17

He shouldn't feel obligated to be present if he doesn't want to be. Many men are quite squeamish and would rather see the baby only after it is born and has been cleaned up.

Answer 18

I suppose it would depend on the relationship between the mother and the father.

Answer 19

I've covered this topic pretty extensively in my question from yesterday, so you can read it there.

OH WAIT!!! No you can't, because somebody had a hissy fit that I would support a father being there for his kid's birth and got it deleted by the KGB...I mean Yahoo.  So I'll have to waste time typing out another response.  Or I could just copy and paste an answer from a similar question earlier and reword it slightly because I'm lazy.

Unless a man has been shown to be a threat to the mother's well-being, yes he belongs there. Contrary to what many people on here want to think, it's his child too. In this case, the procedure is being done on the mother of his child, but it's also being done on his child. He is a caretaker of that child (usually, hopefully). Therefore, he belongs there too. If he was good enough to have s*x with, then by God he belongs in that hospital room with the mother. I know I will be extremely offended if I am kept out for anything other than the well-being of the mother and child. And since I honestly can't think of any medical reason to keep the man out-short of him having some dangerous contagious disease that he could give them- there is absolutely no reason for him not to be there.

Callie does make a good point.  If the father becomes hysterical and a danger to people (such as, but not limited to, the mother and child), then yes he should be removed.  But that should be covered by the safety issue I stated above.

Answer 20

I dont agree with all the people who say if the father is abusive or so, then he cannot be present.

How will it be decided that a man is abusive? One of my friend works with Crime Against Women Cell and she tells about the lots of fake cases (more than 95%) where women accuses man of being abusive, but the reality is something else. Either she is in love with somebody else, caught cheating by husband or she wanna pressurise the man and his family in order to gain control and there are many other reasons.

Coming back to the question Child Birth is a very emotional inceident which offers opportunity the estranged spouses to be united again if there is some love left.

Even if a father is abusive for some reason and he remains present there at the time of child birth it is sure that he is not going to be abusive there.

If a father is criminal murderer or similar, then his presence will be unwanted.

Answer 21

Not if the mother does not want them in the labor/delivery room.  He probably has the right to be in the hospital and to see the child once it is sent to the nursery, but it is her body that is giving birth.

Answer 22

Yes they should, this is the question I asked on Reb's deleted question yesterday and a few people have been asking it all day, I should have put a copyright on it :-D

Answer 23

If he doesn't pose a threat to the mother or child then there is really no reason why not.  You will note that few people oppose it except with, "No they don't have that right"  Which is not really answering the question.

Fathers should absolutely have that right unless they do something that warrants taking it away.  If the woman is so afraid of him then she can go get a restraining order.

Answer 24

The baby if just as much the father's as s/he is the mother's. Yes, the father should have the right to be in the room for the birth, unless the father has been abusive to the mother.

Answer 25

How about a right to see the baby as soon as reasonably practical after the birth if the mother doesn't want him there for the delivery?  (Eg. The cord is cut, the apgar is fine - time to meet daddy while mommy deals with the placenta and gets cleaned up.)

I can imagine situations where the relationship has gone sour or gone down in flames, and it would really stress the woman out to have him there.   If the woman is in a bad headspace because of relationship drama, it can negatively affect the progress of labour, which could actually be dangerous for the mother and the child.  Plus, nobody's ex has the inherent right to see them half naked.

Answer 26

reverse this question and ask "should the mother have the right to be at the birth of her child?" okay well she'd have to be. But you can sense the unfairness to fathers  when it comes to the rights with their kids. Of course the Father should have the right.

Answer 27

i think the father should have the right to be there, but if the hospital only allows one person in with the mother, then it should be the lamaze coach.

Answer 28

Yes, if he's trying to be a good father, there's not enough of those in the world.

If he's done something wrong, rape, abuse, etc then no.

Ultimately it is up to the mother and whoever she wants in there but I think he does have rights and if its his kid and he's trying to be a good dad and willing to be there then yes.

Answer 29

depends. if he doesnt care for the child and is only there to cause trouble for the mother (which some deadbeat men do) then no. but for the most part, yes. even if mother and father dont get along he has a right.

Answer 30

Yes I think they should.

Answer 31

yes unless the husband raped her or beats her