I was expecting to experience a mix of emotions, from stress to happiness, while we were in the hospital for the birth of our first child (Rose). I heard the emotional experiences of other fathers during the delivery day and thought it might be worth capturing these emotions objectively. Therefore, I decided to extract my experienced emotions, including stress, by analyzing heart rate and heart rate variability using algorithms developed in my previous research. For this purpose, I recorded my heart rate by using a wearable ECG monitor while we were in the hospital and waiting for her birth; I don’t want to write a scientific paper but just wanted to share my feelings with objective proof J as a gift to my wife and my daughter on her first birthday. Average heart rate during the time we were in the delivery room is shown below:

Rose, I was under high stress (Calm Index*= 48%) before you were born, but when I heard your cry for the first time, it was a relief, and my stress level turned moderate (Calm Index= 79%). I was further relieved and relaxed (Calm Index= 89%) when I held you and mom. It was the time when we celebrated your birth together.

My feelings didn’t change, and I still feel so calm when I have mom and you by me (excluding cases when you are grumpy!). Maybe I need to do the same monitoring just as proof!

In summary, being a father is awesome, and I am thankful for to be your father.

^* The Calm Index is created by comparing stress levels relative to the baseline recorded in the relaxed state. 100% is extremely relaxed, and 0% is extremely stressed.