The Joys of Fatherhood

I’ve had a wonderful two weeks, so I hope you’ll excuse this unusually personal column.

On Wednesday 28^th November, my wife and I were blessed with our first child – a son. John. He has already changed our lives – and I’m not talking about sleep deprivation. John has brought on emotions I only could have imagined: I feel I have a new set of eyes.

With this huge learning, Emily and I are both struck by our good fortune: to have a healthy baby and to live in Britain.

As the local MP, part of my job is to campaign for improvements to services like health and education – thus my recent criticism of local NHS cuts. Yet that work can mean you rarely get to praise what is happening, when there are fantastic things going on every day.

Our recent experience of the NHS – with the care we received during pregnancy, whilst in Kingston Hospital’s maternity unit and now the after-care – is a prime example. It’s been superb.

We were faced with a difficult decision in hospital. The doctors warned that if we had the natural birth we wanted, there was a risk of a “prolapsed umbilical chord”. They strongly recommended a caesarean section. An incredible operation quickly followed, leaving us awestruck - not just by John but by the skill and care of all the staff.

Amongst the amazing midwives who looked after us were 3 Zimbabweans. Emily’s parents came to Britain from Zimbabwe in the 1960s as they could not bear the racist regime of Ian Smith. So Emily spoke at length to these Zimbabweans and heard their stories.

Suffice to say, we feel immensely grateful for the NHS and to live in this country.