Pregnancy is for husbands too! Here’s why.

The reaction that we commonly get from husbands when we present the news is; “Congratulations, your wife is pregnant” is usually, “my work here is done”. Some may intend it as a joke, but this is a gentle reminder that your work is far from done!

While pregnancy is an outer body experiences for wives (read here; https://sentuh.my/2021/07/06/why-pregnancy-is-almost-an-outer-body-experience/), the husband plays a central role in stabilizing a hormonal mommy-to-be and needs to constantly assure his wife that this is not a lonely journey.

1. Know the changes

Knowing all these changes is a first step towards being an on-the-ball husband. Scour the web, read books. Know all there is to know about your wife’s pregnancy.

2. Cook for her

If you can’t cook there’s YouTube. Trust me. I could only cook a Maggi Mee until about last year. After watching 3-4 YouTube videos on one dish you can kinda suss out how to get things done. Get to work and go from zero to hero, these skills stick with you even after your wife has delivered. Chef skills will never go to waste.

3. Be flexible and available

Times are challenging indeed but do let your colleagues and your boss know ahead of time. Get friends, family, in-laws to see if they can help in emergencies. You will very likely need to cancel plans with friends, cut down on hobbies and be more focused on being there for your wife and your soon-to-be-born child. There’ll be morning sickness, mood swings and so on so it would be a big help to her if you’re simple put … there.

4. Participate in the process

Plan along what to do, trips to the doctor, things to prep around the house to make it baby safe, things to buy, help out with chores if you can’t do them altogether.

5. Prep for the delivery and after

Know what diapers and baby formula, and other necessities to buy? Who’ll be on call to babysit? Your wife can never feel that she’s the only one helming the ship.

7. Gives constant reassurances

Women go through phases of insecurities all through her live, and even more so when they were pregnant. As their body physically changing, some women feel like their bodies don’t even belong to themselves anymore, and start to feel that they were seen as ‘less attractive’ to their husbands.

When this happens, the husbands shouldn’t react negatively when presented by weird questions, coming from their pregnant wives. Tell them over and over again that they are just as beautiful, and how a great of a woman she is. Be the voices of confident that she needed to hear, and that small act of reassurance will get you plenty of brownies point in her heart.

6. Last but not least, make her happy and special

What you say and do can go a long way towards making a woman feel that she’s not in it alone, and has the mental and physical strength to to through with the pregnancy.

It’s a beautiful experience that’s part of life and it helps if you’re prepared.