Birth marks the beginning of a whole new journey - not just for your baby, but for you and your partner too. Whether you’re a dad, a co-parent, or another support person, preparing for birth and early parenthood together can make a big difference to how confident, connected, and calm you both feel when the time comes.
Here are five powerful ways dads and partners can prepare for birth and beyond - and how professionals can support them on the way.
1. Be the Information Processor
Knowledge brings calm. When partners learn what to expect and understand the options available, they become an important anchor during birth. Attending antenatal appointments, birth classes, or parenting sessions together helps both parents feel more involved and informed.
During labour, partners can help by asking questions, clarifying information, and slowing down decisions when things start to feel rushed. This helps maintain a sense of control and emotional safety for the birthing mother or parent.
For professionals: Encourage partners to be part of the conversation early. When dads and partners are treated as valued members of the care team, it benefits everyone.
2. Protect the Space: Be the Bodyguard
A calm birth environment helps the birthing process unfold more smoothly. Partners play a key role in protecting that space - managing visitors, silencing phones, or creating a buffer between the family and outside pressures.
They can also check in with their partner’s comfort and consent if plans change or new care providers become involved. This advocacy supports autonomy and emotional safety during birth.
For professionals: Validate the partner’s protective instincts. Guide them on how to support rather than control the environment. Even small acknowledgements (“You’re doing a great job keeping her space calm”) go a long way.
3. Boost Oxytocin: Be the Lover
Connection is powerful birth medicine. Gentle touch, kind words, laughter, and eye contact all help release oxytocin - the “love hormone” that supports labour progress, bonding, and recovery.
Partners can learn simple comfort techniques such as massage, acupressure, and mindful breathing together. These small gestures create big feelings of safety and connection.
For professionals: Teach partners practical ways to stay connected during birth. Normalise their emotional involvement - affection, presence, and reassurance are part of the physiology of birth, not just sentiment.
4. Offer Warmth and Comfort: Be the Heater
After birth, warmth is still vital - physically and emotionally. Partners can help regulate body temperature, support the third stage of labour, and nurture the first moments of family bonding through cuddles and closeness.
If the birthing parent can’t do skin-to-skin immediately, partners can step in - providing warmth and stabilising the baby’s temperature, breathing, and heart rate while forming their own early connection.
For professionals: Invite partners to participate in early skin-to-skin and explain why it matters. These moments create lasting confidence and attachment.
5. Be Half of Team Hero
However birth unfolds - smoothly, unexpectedly, or somewhere in between - the most important thing is that partners feel like part of Team Us. Birth can be intense, but when couples navigate it together, they often emerge more connected, grateful, and in awe of each other.
For professionals: Encourage teamwork language and shared reflection after birth. Help couples integrate their experience together, not separately.
Remember: You Don’t Have to Be All These Things All the Time
Partners often put pressure on themselves to be calm, capable, protective, loving, and strong - all at once. But the truth is, no one can hold all those roles continuously. Dads and partners need care, reassurance, and recovery time too.
For professionals: Check in on how the partner is coping. Offer them information, listening space, and acknowledgment. Supporting the supporter is part of supporting the family.
Preparing for Birth Is Preparing for Parenthood
Birth isn’t just one day - it’s the doorway into your shared life as parents. Preparing together emotionally, physically, and relationally helps both of you transition more smoothly into parenthood.
For professionals, recognising and resourcing partners helps create stronger families, healthier relationships, and better outcomes for everyone.
Learn more about how to guide couples through this next stage of the journey. You’ll find a postpartum Nest Building Plan on the home page, here: