How to Dad: Caring for your Wife After a C-Section

How to Dad: Caring for your Wife After a C-Section

My journey into fatherhood was a very interesting one. My wife and I had planned on having our son with all the pushing, screaming and punching (her to me) that normally comes with pushing a baby through the birth canal.

However, my oldest son had other plans. One look at my son and you can see why everything changed from a normal vaginal birth to a C-section in a matter of moments. The kid has a GIANT noggin. My son’s head was too large to push through and he got stuck. While he was stuck, he began to panic (naturally) and his heart rate was all over the charts. After an hour of tracking, we went to get this kid out of my wife. Everything went smoothly, but it wasn’t what we were prepared for. From the moment our doctor suggested the C-section, my wife was very nervous. She wasn’t one of those “this doesn’t fit my birthing plan!” people, but she was nervous because she didn’t know what to expect. She didn’t know if it was going to be successful for her or the baby, how she would recover, or what the pain that was going to be. Like a good husband, I assured her everything was going to be fine and that I would do all that I could to make sure that everything would be okay. Insert foot in mouth. I didn’t tell her that I, too, was pretty nervous because I also didn’t know what to expect during all this. It was our first time going through this, after all! Fast forward to when we got home. We had to change a lot to make sure that both her and my son were comfortable. I’m grateful that our son was a champ, and slept from day one, because that really helped us adjust with her post-surgery care. Anyway, our bed is set pretty high, and getting into it would pull at my wife’s incision. We moved the bed to our floor, and put our son sleeping in a bassinet next to us. Because she had carried my son for nine months, I felt it was my duty to get up whenever he cried, needed a diaper change or anything else my wife needed. Having him close to us made everything easier because sometimes I didn’t even have to get out of bed!

It wasn’t easy to get used to, but it was worth it. I felt like I really helped my wife recover from something that at first, she didn’t really want to do. If you find yourself in a similar situation, talk it over with your spouse and see what she wants you to do to make a smooth transition.

Featured Image PC: @lactationlink
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