How My Husband Got Me Through Labor

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Shuffle, shuffle, ball-change, tap, tap, kick-step

"Here comes another one," I said.

My husband and I both stopped dancing and took each other by the forearms. I settled down onto the end of the bed and puffed my way through another contraction, attempting to ignore his erratic coaching as he pretended to remember what we learned in the Birthing Babies the Fun and Easy Way! DVD we'd watched the week before.

When the contraction ended, I stood up and resumed swaying my hips back and forth. Cody, standing across from me, resumed his odd little stay-awake dance. We'd both been awake for more than 24 hours straight. To anybody watching, it may have looked as though we were doing an interpretive routine worthy of Burning Man, when in reality Cody was trying not to fall asleep standing up and I was doing my best to avoid any delays in labor.

Shuffle, shuffle, ball-change, tap, tap, kick-step

We'd taken ballroom classes the previous fall, part of our "trying new things together" campaign. Never had I imagined that the only dancing we'd be doing together after we left the classroom was in the delivery room, awaiting the arrival of our second child. Although to call what we were doing "dancing" would have been an insult to our instructor.

Neither of us had any clue during the birth of our first daughter, which resulted in us staring at each other in fear until the doctor said it was time to push. But this time, we were helping each other through the toughest parts.

Shuffle, shuffle, ball-change, tap, tap, kick-step

"I like your dance," I said. Seeing him being so goofy was a distraction from the contractions that were coming on faster and stronger.

"Thanks!" he replied as he began to hum a little tune to go along with his shuffling.

Shuffle, shuffle, ball-change, tap, tap, kick-step

A few minutes later my swaying stopped, I settled back onto the end of the bed, and he took my arms again.

"You're breathing wrong!" he said.

"No I'm not! You didn't pay attention to that video at all, did you?"

It was just like our ballroom lessons.

"The instructor said lead with your left!"

"No, he didn't. He said 'right!'"

Clearly, our labor dancing was a lot more helpful than the coaching.

We were so young when our first was born. The roughest thing we'd dealt with till then was a few tense family dinners. After we became parents, we'd moved across the country, survived law school (him), suffered through secondary infertility, bought our first home, and peered over the ledge of separation. We came so close to breaking, but chose instead to become stronger.

Another contraction. I stood and swayed.

Shuffle, shuffle, ball-change, tap, tap, kick-step

Before long, the nurse checked me and sent me back to bed until the doctor arrived. Cody still shuffled, only now it was out of anticipation rather than exhaustion. The doctor and nurses took over the coaching and Cody took my hand.

Never had my heart been more drawn to the man I married 10 years go than the day he danced me through labor.