Hi everyone, in this video, we're going to talk about the research evidence on supporting partners

through the birth process. And by the end of this video, you'll be able to discuss the unique

needs and experiences of LGBTQIA birthing people in their partners and discuss the roles

and experiences fathers and partners might have during childbirth.

It's interesting to look back in history at the treatment of partners in childbirth.

There's a really interesting book called Make Room for Daddy that was published in 2009,

and it's so crazy to read about the first portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth on TV.

In The I Love Lucy show, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz acted in seven episodes about Lucy's

real life pregnancy and birth.

When Lucy was finally ready to go to the hospital in the episode, Desi was portrayed

as a buffoon and a non-serious character.

He was supposed to carry her suitcase, support her, and get her to the hospital calmly.

In the end, he dropped the suitcase, spilling the contents everywhere, ran around frantically

and ended up going to the hospital in a wheelchair with Lucy carrying the suitcase behind him.

During the birth, he was of course not allowed in the hospital room with her and he

paced the waiting room a total outsider. In that respect his situation was quite similar to that

of most men's during that time. Starting in the 1950s a few hospitals gradually began to allow men to

visit their wives for brief periods during labor. Less privileged men and women were not given this opportunity as women labored in huge labor wards

and there was no way to secure privacy for the other women in labor.

Women who could afford private hospitals had access to this possibility of having their partners

with them earliest.

So in general, upper class white women were the

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