I have heard withdrawl compared to this way by women in NA: when you have a baby, if you don't get an epidural you go through intense pain, but when the baby is born you forget the pain. As time goes on, remembering labor is like remembering a dream. As the years pass you still decide to have another baby, and don't really take into account the pain. The first time is scary because you don't know what to expect, but each time gets easier because you know what to expect. Yet you still warn youngsters of all of the horrors of childbirth, but never a girl who is about to go through it herself.
I like this analogy and yet I don't... because babies are blessings and drugs a curse... but I don't know your husband, I wonder if maybe some type of similar thought process is why he isn't so afraid.
anyhow, enough about him. He will be ok. how are you? Im glad you will get to spend time with your sister