Spotify Sunday: Music to Birth Babies By

When I was writing my novel The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs I wanted the hero, Joel, to create a CD to play during the birth of his first child. I wanted this act to be a symbol of his devotion to the mother of his child and his desire to do find a role for himself in the whole messy birth business.

Prospective fathers are much mocked for their obsessions with researching the best buggy and their impotence in the labour room, but all the ones I know are just doing their utmost to be supportive. A man and a woman who’ve always found themselves to be equal are divided as soon as she gets pregnant – she is the centre of all the attention and pain, however much he tries to share in it. Creating a playlist, however small a gesture, is his attempt to show that it means as much to him.