Rosalía Lupita Valentina Neubaue came into the world with a little bit of difficulty. Her mother, April, was diagnosed with preeclampsia and since she had such high blood pressure, labor was induced and they broke her water.
There were a few things that April and her husband, Maxamillian were well aware of when they were preparing for the birth. They knew that breast-feeding was very important for the health of the child, and immediate skin to skin contact was a part of the birth plan.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to forgo those essential items, just because the mother was having difficulties. A nurse got creative and before you know it, the father was going somewhere where no man has ever gone before.
With preeclampsia, April ended up having two seizures and an emergency C-section surgery was necessary. The second seizure came during the C-section, so Max had to wait outside of the room while his daughter was born.
When he was finally able to be with his little daughter, his mother was still being worked on and stabilized. They still wanted to reach their goal of breast-feeding and early skin-to-skin contact, so Dad was on deck.
The nurse asked the father if he would like to ‘throw a nipple on’ and do some real breast-feeding. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he would be the first one to breast-feed his child.
He said: “Me being a big joker and the ability to try just about anything once, I said sure why not. The nursing staff were giggling and jumping for joy.”
They were planning on giving Rosalía formula to hold her over until the mother was ready to nurse but creativity prevailed. It would be later when April learned that her husband was the first to breast-feed the baby and she appreciates that they were able to get the job done.
She said: “After my procedure, I was out for hours. It was very important for us to breastfeed her and my doctors and nurses knew how important this was to us. So our nurse came up with the plan for my husband to breastfeed her for the first time until I was up and alert. It was definitely unexpected but he would never do anything he would feel I wasn’t comfortable with. Since I was unable to right away due to some health issues, I’m glad my husband was able to step in.”
Max was ready to go, with a nipple shield, syringe tube, and a flow of formula. He was able to effectively simulate breast-feeding for the newborn child, and he said: “Our nurse helped a lot — I mean I’ve never breastfed or even thought in a thousand years I would.”
When April’s mother and grandfather walked in, they didn’t know what to expect. The mother-in-law’s reaction was priceless, as she said: “Only you Maxie … I didn’t believe the nurses, my God, only you.”
Max then admitted: “Great Grandpa didn’t have anything to say. Very old-school guy, just kinda looked at me funny. He came around in the end.”
As of now, Max has only been the breast-feeder one time but he feels that he would do it again if necessary. He did admit: “I felt a connection the minute I saw my little girl. I got to hold her and help her get used to breastfeeding, I hope.
“Really, I did it just to be a good dad and be a hero for the nursing staff because they are superheroes. You couldn’t ask for anyone better.”