There is a phrase, (from the Bible, I believe), that states that “Love seeks not it’s own”, and this is something that I have found to be true time and again, especially in an interpersonal relationship. To be a great husband, lover, father, ( or wife, lover, mother) you have to look to the needs of those you love before your own. So when people say, “Oh that was written by a man so how could HE possibly know?”, my answer is that if he truly, deeply loves his wife, how could he NOT know? His love will have him observing her slightest nuance, in an effort to be better able to love her, and over time his “knowing” will become something that is deeply intuitive.

While I can’t claim to understand what something like childbirth feels like on a physical level, I can understand it from an emotional perspective, for I shared many of the same fears and hopes as Dawne did at those times. My own reaction was to memorize every single page of “The Emergency Childbirth Handbook”, hoping that I would never need it From my studies and conversations with Dawne, I knew what to do *for her* when the time came, and that is the point. A man will never truly know what a woman feels like, but if he pays attention, he will always know how to be the man she needs, when she needs him. And that is the way it should be.

NOTE: heh, upon re-reading my comment, I realized 2 things:
First: This is something that could probably do well, expanded into an article of it’s own, and
Second: You’re right, it is good book material. Somebody should write one, one day