A Dad’s Worst Nightmare – Being An Emergency Midwife & Delivering His Daughter!

Every single birth story is different and they all have their natural dangers. But as I sat down thinking about all the probabilities of what could have happened, I felt powerful knowing that even though things didn’t go to plan, my wife gave birth to a happy and healthy baby girl.

Usually, a dad’s role is one of protector and advocator, with a primary focus on discipline and trying to keep the peace. However, this event had stretched my parental responsibilities to a level that I could never have envisioned.

In this article, I’ll reveal the culmination of events that lead to me delivering my own baby and my wife giving birth at home, with no pain killers and no help from the paramedics!

Just Before Dawn

My wife had begun feeling little contractions a few days in a row, so anticipated that the baby was coming soon. This was our second child and with her first, my wife gave birth 10 days before her due date, so we expected our baby to come early.

My wife had been very busy for the past few nights, so I was well aware of her irregular patterns. However, on this night, I didn’t catch her limp out of bed, so she was up for a few hours before me.

By the time I had got up, she had been going through mild to moderate contractions and I had to start timing contracts immediately to catch up.

As I could see her growing discomfort I began to plan our trip and slowly started to prepare for all things hospital related.

Timing Contractions

However, as I started timing the contractions, I noticed they were coming very regularly but were also surprisingly close together. I decided to avoid any chances and gave the hospital a ring to inform them that we were coming straight in.

Beforehand, the hospital had advised us to only call and come in when contractions were really close and after they had done a verbal assessment on my wife.

However, before I could even get through to the right department my wife let out a scream of pain. She stood there, half on her feet and a half on the ground, in complete confusion.

I didn’t need to question what happened, it was obvious. Her waters had broken all in one go and she stood there in shock.

Seeing her distress and realizing that it would be very hard to get us all in the car quickly, I decided to call an ambulance. We weren’t ready yet and i hadn’t woken up our 2-year-old son to get him ready either.

This decision proved to be a smart one as we probably would never have made it to the hospital! 

The Baby Is Crowning!

As she squatted in confusion and worry, still going through severe contractions, I spoke with the emergency operator on the telephone.

I explained the circumstances and she assured me an ambulance was on its way and was nearby.

Everything was going so fast and by this point, we both knew that one way or another this baby was going to be born at home. It was a little discomforting as we hadn’t planned for this at all.

I tried to think of a few quick things I could do to make the living room more tranquil. I dimmed the lights, gently laid out some pillows and blankets and shouted across to our voice activation media device to “Play Waterfall sounds”.

As my wife struggled to manage contractions, the operator gently asked me to check on the baby to see if I could locate it’s position.

As my wife unwillingly opened her legs I could see blatantly that the baby was crowning.

I had read a few baby books beforehand, so I was better informed about what was about to happen. I knew that this meant the baby was coming sooner rather than later, so anxiously asked the operator how far the ambulance was away.

She assured me they were close, but then began to ask me to pick up a few non-medical household items from around my house. I got a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t right, but went along with it.

Baby isn’t waiting!

As I scrambled through my drawers to find a shoelace I knew things may be getting from bad to worse.

My wife was bearing down and gritting her pain and I felt so helpless. It was a scary and a very distressing moment but just as I thought things couldn’t get any worse our 2-year-old son crashes through the door.

He had slept through it all, but on hearing his mothers amplified screams, had awoken to see what all the fuss was about. I quickly settled him, as best I could, at one end of the room and continued to take instructions from the paramedic. It couldn’t have been the worst timing!

Euphoria & Fear… Simultaneously!

My wife had passed into active labour extremely fast and she was ready to push the baby out right now. We couldn’t wait for the ambulance.

I took her hand, tried to remain calm while simultaneously taking instructions from the operator and managing my toddler who was in obvious distress.

I remember the operator having to repeat herself a few times, not because I didn’t hear her, but because things were taken so much longer to process. Time had slowed down and it was like each second was a minute.

As my wife started to push, our baby started to show herself. Momentarily her head protruded out and I saw my beautiful daughters face for the first time.

It was a culminating sense of total euphoria, followed by intense fear. It’s a feeling that’s difficult to explain and one I will never forget.

The next few moments were a blur of screams of pain, firm instructions over the telephone and high pitch crying from both new baby and our toddler. So much was happening that I had to take a second to catch my breath.

As my wife continued to push the rest of the baby came out, shoulders, back and bum and then feet. I supported the baby’s head and body and wrapped her up in a clean towel. I instantly praised my wife and told her how proud I was of her.

She is the strongest person I know and I kept on telling her proud I was of her to be able to go through everything with no pain killers. She was completely exhausted and could barely hold her head up.

Paramedics Arrive (late)

A few seconds later I hear a knock on the door as the paramedics eventually arrived. They walked in and was very surprised to see that the baby had already arrived.

They quickly checked the baby over and gave her the all-clear. As we gathered our things together to get a more in-depth check at the hospital I felt both annoyed and relieved.

Frustrated that the paramedics took so long, but just totally satisfied that my daughter was born happy and healthy at home.

Our Baby weighed 6 pounds and 2 ounces and was healthy and perfectly normal.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes I look back at our ordeal and can’t help but to be completely jubilant. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that I was able to assist my wife in delivering her own baby and that everything turned out ok.

I always thought that a dad’s primary responsibility was getting to the hospital on time. I could have never envisioned, in my wildest dreams, that my parental responsibilities would stretch to assisting a newborn delivery.

One thing I’ve learnt is that Childbirth is unpredictable and you really should be ready for anything!

About The Author

Mo Mulla is a work from home dad who enjoys reading and listening to music. He loves being a dad and husband to a growing family. He loves writing about his passions and hopes to change the world, 1 blog post at a time! You can find his parenting blog here: ParentalQuestions.com