After dropping her by the door around
7ish I parked the car and arrived a
little later myself. There was no
receptionist but someone did let me in
through the security doors. Not knowing
where to go and no one to ask I sat in
reception and waited.
After waiting 30 minutes or so I
remembered that I only had enough change
for one hour in the car park so I
proceeded to find someone to inform my
wife that I was going to the cash-point.
It was at this time that I eventually
found out that I could have gone through
some doors and even sat with my wife
while they monitored her.
Once I informed her of my errands and
found out that there was no real
concern; they wanted to keep her in
for monitoring; I carried out my errands
and returned where I sat with her.
There was only one nurse monitoring my
wife and on one occasion a doctor came
in and examined her and said that she
wasn't even dilated. So my wife carried
on with the irregular pains and I
continued to sit with her.
It
was now 9.15am and my stomach was
rumbling for some breakfast so armed
with the dilation information I asked
the nurse if much would happen in the
next half hour and she said no. So off I
went looking for the hospital restaurant
for a good English breakfast, which I
found and ate quite quickly. 30 minutes
later I returned to the maternity ward
and that's when it all started to
happen.
Just as I was approaching Room 8, where
my wife was, the sister of the ward
approached me and said that my wife was
starting to deliver, but due to the early
birth and that it was a breach birth
there is high possibility that they may
have to do a caesarean.
Now, I like to think as myself as an
educated man and I certainly knew what a
caesarean was but breach meant nothing
to me, but in the shock of the
information I told the sister that I
understood and proceeded through
the doors.
When I left the room half hour ago there
was one nurse, now there were five
people. My immediate reaction was to get to
my wife's bedside, which was quite
strange in itself. It almost felt like
'This is Your Life' because everyone was
expecting me and when I walked towards
the bed I felt like Moses
parting the water for the Israelites
because everyone just moved as I
approached.
The next minute, my wife's legs were put
in the stirrups and we were off...
Holding my wife's hand, talking to her
and passing her the gas and air widget I
proceeded to coach her like I'd never
coached before. The humorous thing was
the hand holding as it was just like a
couple of people arm wrestling and I was
even willing to put a wager on who would
win.
However, the difficult part was the fact
that my wife had to push even when she
didn't have contractions and that means
doing most of the work yourself, without the help
of your body. And trust me, that's got
to be hard.
As events proceeded the room filled with a
total of eight people and I couldn't
tell who was a doctor, paediatrician or
nurse. But who cared we just needed to
get through the delivery first.
click here to continue
reading dad's story
Changing Babies Nappies.
ON THE DAY
