There's no doubt about it — the delivery room can be an incredible, but also stressful, place. That is why the last thing a new mom should have to worry about is an unwanted visitor popping up when she's at her most vulnerable. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to one woman who posted on Reddit. Her husband snuck his mother into the delivery room while she was giving birth — at the very moment her baby was crowning.
In general, the new mom admits that she's a very private person.
When she gave birth to her daughter three weeks ago, all of her boundaries were pushed to the limit.
For context, the new mom shared that she'd admittedly been "terrified" throughout her pregnancy about anything going wrong.
"My husband knows this, and I specifically asked him, when we found out about this pregnancy, that he tried to help me lower my stress levels, since the pregnancy itself would already be causing me significant stress," she wrote in the post.
For most of her pregnancy, her husband was able to keep things calm and stress-free.
That meant that no matter how stressful his day at work was, her husband did his best to create a chill vibe at home.
"He put up with me when I cried over silly things like wanting one specific brand of food that was sold out," she explained, "he made sure I was comfortable at home and rarely had to go out when I was too big to do so comfortably."
In short, he was really nailing this dad-to-be thing.
When it came to the baby's birth, the couple agreed beforehand that it would just be the two of them in the delivery room.
"No parents, no family, no friends, just us and the medical staff," she shared.
There was just one problem: Her mother-in-law wasn't thrilled by this news. In fact, when she went into labor, her MIL cried that it wasn't fair she wouldn't get to see the birth of her grandchild.
According to the poster, her MIL is "usually a very, very nice lady, just has her moments." And let's just say … she was really having a moment here.
Apparently, Grandma had already witnessed the birth of her other grandchildren when her daughter gave birth — but she didn't want to miss out on any more.
The poster's husband tried to get her to agree at the last minute to let his mother into the room, but the mom-to-be put her foot down.
That, she thought, was surely the end of it. But she couldn't have been more wrong.
"After a long, exhausting, painful labor, when my doctor announced my daughter was crowning, I saw the door open and my mother-in-law come in," the mom recalled. "No medical staff got up to stop her."
That's when the mom-to-be started freaking out.
Grabbing her husband, she told him to get his mother out of the delivery room — STAT. In response, he suddenly changed course and tried to argue that his mother should be there for the birth of her grandchild.
It did not go over well.
"I started panicking HARD, like I said, I am a private person and did not want my MIL staring into my lady bits while I was so vulnerable and exposed," the poster explained. "I kept saying to my husband, 'Take her outside, please, get her out of here, please, please,' but he would not budge."
Luckily, a nurse caught wind of what was happening and forced both the mother-in-law and the woman's husband to leave the room.
Soon after, the poster gave birth to her daughter. And as happy as she was, the whole debacle had created another issue.
"Because of the MIL situation, [my husband] did not get to witness the birth," she explained. "He was very upset at me during the hospital stay, saying I didn't allow him to see his child be born."
Some three weeks later, the new mom can't help but feel bad about the whole thing.
"I did want my husband in there, but he should not have let his mother in," she wrote. "It's been almost three weeks since we have been back home, and he still acts coldly towards me sometimes."
But was she wrong?
People in the comments had some choice words for the poster's husband.
"He violated your bodily autonomy by insisting his mom be present at a time you were most vulnerable," one commenter declared. "You were extraordinarily clear about what you needed and he ignored you."
"He betrayed her trust be allowing his mother in the room and not immediately making her leave," a second person added.
A third person was especially floored by the husband's behavior, given the circumstances.
"He risked her and the baby's health!" the person wrote. "The nurse did not kick everyone out to coddle OP. She saw a serious health risk. Any kind of scary [expletive] can happen when a woman giving birth has a panic attack at that stage.
"Get a midwife or OBGYN to tell your husband how utterly stupid that was from a medical point of view," the commenter continued. "Get a couple's therapist to tell him that he [expletive] up big time relationship-wise, or show him this post."
Luckily, though, this story has a happy ending.
After calmly explaining the situation to her MIL, the grandmother actually apologized.
And later in the thread, the poster explained that her MIL really is "a very lovely person."
"She is a bit too involved in our lives, but I don't really care usually, because she is very sweet and always helps us when we need," the mom continued. "She apologized to me for the delivery stunt while I was still in the hospital (really apologized) and even offered to stay back for some time to give us time to recover, but I declined."
In the end, the woman believes her mother-in-law was just very excited, "and while it will take some time for me to get over this, I don't have any intention of keeping her away from my new family," she concluded.
Of course, if Grandma pulls this stunt again, that will be a whole different story. ("But she has made me trust that she won't," the poster assured.)
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