I watched the birth of my two children…. Uh, watched? No, that does not begin to describe it. I think you could say that I ran a marathon while trying to help my wife give birth to the kids. And if I was running a marathon, how many did my wife run? Ten to my one?
It was a lot of work. I massaged and I walked and I got drenched (when she needed me in the shower next to her and I was still clothed) and I cajoled and encouraged and still, in the end, it took the midwife threatening her with induction to get her to push out our first. The next time she had had it with natural birth. Drugs all the way! That was a lot easier. On both of us.
But did the experience change the way I perceive women? Not that I can imagine. Should it have? What are you going for here? We do what we do in order to get through the day. We try our hardest. We expect the most. This is the same before and after childbirth.