Dad: In my culture, the mom makes the decisions about the baby. But my wife couldn't answer properly and I had no choice but to leave her in hospital to get better. All of a sudden people were asking me everything. I went home and figured we'd work it out somehow. My wife had been desperate to breastfeed, but now suddenly I'm with Sebastian a hundred percent of the time and I'm trying to feed him formula from a bottle, but he wouldn't take it, and he wouldn't stop crying.

I didn't know anything about this stuff so I took him to the kids hospital and I felt like an idiot. I'd always wanted to be a hands-on dad but this was too much. I was stressed out of my head. I can remember having some really special moments with Sebastian but then I felt guilty 'cause his mom wasn't enjoying him at all. I did try to enjoy the good times with the baby while my wife was out of action but it was tough.

At first Milene was kind of in a daze when she came home, but when I started to see her really enjoy Sebastian I nearly lost it. I didn't realize how much I've been holding it all in. It was the relief and realisation I guess, that things were starting to get back on track.

Current as at: Thursday 6 August 2020
Contact page owner: Mental Health