Having a baby: Dad’s Perspective

There really is nothing that can be written here that will ultimately prepare a soon-to-be new dad for the experience of their baby’s delivery. Apart from the fact that each baby delivery is so uniquely different, there are so many other factors including home vs. hospital births, using a midwife vs OB, and the general level of patience your 9-month pregnant partner has for you.

But, let me present my experience:

T minus 2 days until our baby’s due date and the anticipation is palpable. It’s the middle of January, and starting to really cool down in Vancouver, BC — but that wasn’t stopping my wife from going on multiple walks during the day to try and encourage labor to start. Up until this point, the pregnancy was pretty straight forward, except for a slowly creeping upwards blood pressure for my wife.

The week prior to the baby’s due date we had been in and out of hospitals and labs to constantly monitor my wife’s blood and liver function — the main fear being pre-eclampsia.

But the test results always came back clear. After some thorough research on the internet (WebMD), I made the astute diagnosis of Gestational Hypertension — a form of elevated blood pressure that sometimes arises towards the end of pregnancy.

Health care providers loved when I would ask questions regarding my internet research (even though their faces indicated otherwise).

So here we are a couple days before the due date, with gestational hypertension, and all of a sudden:

“BABE! I think my mucus plug is falling out!”

Because that sounded like a medical emergency, I hurried myself over to the bathroom where my wife was — only to find that a career in obstetrics was not in my future. Whatever it was that I was shown, I can now provide fathers-to-be with my first bit of advice: Take your partners word for it — don’t seek further evidence.

OK, Great — So we’ve got this mucus plug out, now what?

What we found best was when we had a question, to call our midwives. It probably drove them nuts, but it’s only best to discuss your questions with the people that know, and often that put out minds at ease.