37 weeks today here and I am utterly sobbing my way through this (avoiding doing housework). We lost a baby girl at 18 weeks so I can appreciate some of what that couple must have been feeling. But, gosh, that poor woman's mother! I didn't tell my mother I was in labour so that she didn't come down to visit too quickly and wouldn't dream of having her while I was in labour.
As for the older midwife, I didn't think she was that sympathetic. I hate people saying to me, "It's all going to be fine this time", because no-one knows that so I much more appreciate people who recognise my worries and accept that the worries are not going to go away until I get this baby in my arms.
"Oh no, awkward male med student! I always feel so sorry for them on our ward - the women never want to them to come in the room (I can see why) so I doubt most of them ever see a normal birth!"
As a doctor, I've been debating whether or not to allow medical students to observe my birth as there is always the risk that I arrive in a few years time on a ward and say, "Hello, I'm Dr Bartlet, the new consultant", and then one of my junior doctors suddenly realises that we've met before and he's seen a bit more of me than he might have otherwise!
However, precisely because I know how difficult it is to get your births in as a medical student and particularly as a male medical student, I think I might quite deliberately say that a male medical student is fine. He's not going to be looking at my face anyway...