A friend has requested I be her birth partner.

[Spaceboundeminem]

I am nervous that I will not be any good so asking for tips?

Plus I was 13 and had a traumatic experience my mum had just had a csec and the nurse took her bandage off and the stitches were undone meaning everything fell out. She was rushed to theatre and I was left looking after my dsis.

This is my friends second baby and she wants to try for a vbac.

Having given birth myself three times vaginally I am confidant I will be able to support her through a vbac but obviously there is a higher risk of her needing a csec and never having experienced this I am nervous. I thought I would ask for tips here?

Particularly what to do in the event of a csec?

If she has a Csection there won't be much for you to do. When I had mine, my h had to just stand by my head while it was all going on. the anaesthetist was the one talking to me making sure I was ok. It's all behind a screen anyway, so you won't have to see anything.

What an honour to be her birthing partner, that is a huge thing.

My best friend was my birth partner (along with dh who i was worried would faint). She was great at sorting all my stuff, fetching things from my bad or the hospital shop, talking to the midwives on my behalf and keeping family members in the loop.

As it was i had an emcs and my dh who was a lot less useless than i gave him credit for came into the operating theatre. He sat at my head facing away and there was a screen up so he didn't see anything squeamish. The support he gave was just talking to me reassuring me and letting me know what was going on.

Thank you yes it is a honour I hope I can be as supportive as she deserves. She has split from her partner so I am her only birthing partner.

I think you need to talk to her about what kind of support she wants/expects from you. Once you have a clearer idea you'll be more able to plan and make decisions. For example - if she was hoping to do hypnobirthing, but you think it's a load of hippy dippy claptrap then that might not work out!

I'm guessing though, as you're friends, that you've discussed this kind of stuff before and she knows you'd be supportive.

Good luck

She plans on having whatever pain relief is available which is different to my choice and I was lucky enough that I was able to have my choice. But I don't have strong feelings I think every woman should do what's right for her. I will sit down over the coming months and talk to her a lot.