Nominee for Daddy Doula Award 2020
My husband Nathan
Why do you feel this Daddy Doula deserves the award?
My husband, what an incredible birth partner he was. From the beginning, he was on board and so supportive of doing the She Births® course and follow all the techniques we learnt. Unfortunately due to COVID, we decided it was best to opt for the online course vs in-person And we loved doing it together – my husband owns a cafe and works 6 days, so Sunday was our She Births® day and we looked forward to completing together over the 4 weeks.
We both took notes and would share our learnings and discuss how we would implement the teachings during labour. He would ask how best can I help you stay on track, remember your breathing and ensure I’m massaging correctly – he was very sweet.
Once labour hit he was on instantly! Massaging my lower back during every contraction, reminding me to breath, rocking and swaying with me, controlling the tense machine and encouraging me every step of the way and I truly couldn’t have got through the marathon of labour without him. We were a team and labour our greatest achievement to date, besides creating our perfect little man of course…
Darius’ (our son) head was stuck for over an hour at the end of my labour and our midwife needed Nath’s help to apply pressure to my vagina with hot towels to assist with getting him out. Again he rose to the challenge so amazingly and together we finally pushed him out, pain killer free and with no tearing or internal damage to me at all. He was and is my rock and although I shouldn’t have been surprised, he was an incredible daddy doula and I feel so incredibly blessed and grateful that we birthed our son together.
Describe your birth experience in 3 words:
Empowering, raw and intense.
How did you prepare for birth?
Following our She births® teachings, yoga, meditation
How did you bring your baby into the world?
Natural vagina birth at The Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick.
Who supported you throughout the birth?
My husband and midwife (was in the Midwifery Program at the Royal)
What was the most challenging part of the birth?
The last hour pushing out Darius head that was stuck. I was so exhausted by this point and energy was low but something rose up inside me and I pushed and pushed him out!
What most helped you through the birth experience?
Breathing and massage.
Was there anything that surprised you on the day?
No, not really. Maybe just the intensity of contractions!! And also how bizarre the feeling was between contractions – I felt completely normal and would be having conversations with Nath and then boom contraction would hit and back to moaning!
Anything else you would like to tell us about your experience?
I’m honestly so grateful to have completed the course and couldn’t recommend it more highly – I speak about it to anyone who listens!
I felt so empowered to make informed decisions for me and my baby and create a birth plan/preference that we felt comfortable with. Thank you, Nadine, you’re truly amazing.
Active labour commenced 7 pm Wednesday 8th July and had been in labour since Tuesday 2 am day prior.
Arrived hospital midnight 6cm dilated and moved to 10 cm within 40 mins.
In and out of the bath, shower, standing, kneeling, birthing stool, to laying on back with legs on Nath and midwife, hips was my final birthing position. The body naturally knew to push! Head was stuck for 1 hour as perennial was stopping him from getting through – elastic band tight. My midwife said Bec only you can do this, you have to give it your all and on the next contraction, I just said this is it and pushed his head out, next contraction was the rest of his body and we were finally done!
We didn’t find out the gender, which was super special when we saw our baby was a He. We burst into tears and just hugged each other. A moment I’ll never forget.