When I gave birth to my daughter 2 years ago, my partner struggled a lot with the whole process. She was sick / crying / panicky and was speaking out loud to herself about how she didn’t know what to do and that she couldn’t cope. Eventually the midwives just took her out of the room, seeing it wasn’t helping me, but it didn’t make much difference when she returned. All of those things really weren’t helpful so I really had to just manage the whole labour and birth myself, going into my head to find the strength to keep going, needless to say I did and the birth was all straightforward etc.

I am now 38 weeks pregnant and looking for specific bits of advice to give her or things to say and do that would be supportive and comforting and helpful.

I appreciate not everyone is built for handling birth well, but she is a student paramedic so handles all kinds of things day to day that would be traumatic - but I appreciate seeing your partner in pain is different.

I am planning a home water birth this time to hope that her being in familiar environment will help her keep calmer. We also have had a conversation recently where we have acknowledged that she struggles with knowing how to give emotional support. So any specific words / phrases that helped you that I can share with her to try would be great.

Thank you all in advance :)