Nominee for Daddy Doula Award 2020

My husband Joshua

Why do you feel this Daddy Doula deserves the award?

For a man that had no experience with birth I felt he handled the situation so well, he was attentive to my needs and supportive of my decisions, he was my rock through it all and my advocate for avoiding a csection (baby was low lying until 38 weeks) I absolutely couldn’t have done it all without him, additionally, he had to leave the hospital only 6 hours after the birth due to COVID which was heartbreaking for him.

Describe your birth experience in 3 words:

Empowering, loving, long.

How did you prepare for birth?

Doing the She Births® Online Course, lots of visualisations!

How did you bring your baby into the world?

Vaginally under epidural

Who supported you throughout the birth?

Daddy Doula Joshua!

What was the most challenging part of the birth?

Lack of progression was my biggest mind challenge

What most helped you through the birth experience?

Knowing my body was built to do this and feeling empowered through the course to make decisions for myself.

Was there anything that surprised you on the day?

Just how long labour could go for, and that I just never had a regular contraction, I thought this was just a given and would happen.

Anything else you would like to tell us about your experience?

My waters broke at 8:30 am and contractions began right away, I laboured at home on the ball, doing my visualisations but by 4 pm I felt I needed to go into the hospital not because baby was close but I was having 2min long contractions and just needed some reassurance that everything was fine. I was managing contractions internally, my husband was wonderful using massage and heat packs on my back and pressing my tens machine when needed.

Around 10 pm the nurse checked and I was 5cm but still not having a regular contraction, they varied anywhere from 15mins apart to 30seconds.

By 12 am I felt I needed help to get through and requested an epidural – I never imagined I would ask for one and my husband tried to help me stick to my birth plan but I was exhausted, I needed some relief and I felt so empowered to make that decision and I was ok with it.

I was left to rest post epidural but continued to have the same irregular contractions, the midwife told me that I was slowly dilating due to the very long and strong contractions and without them, I probably wouldn’t be progressing due to the irregularity of the contractions.

At 6am the next day I had 1cm to go but the baby was slightly facing the wrong way so a ball was put between my legs to help turn the baby. At 7:30 am I was fully dilated and told to start pushing.

Pushing went very quickly baby’s head was almost born and it took 15 mins for my next contraction to arrive, during the wait baby almost helped me push him out as I could feel his head slowly inching out without me even pushing.

With the next contraction, Riggs arrived at 8:02 am almost 24hours after my first contraction.