When I nearly lost my life during childbirth, I thought the hardest part was over. But after our daughter Lily was born, my husband, Ryan, began pulling away. He fed and changed her but avoided looking at her, and every night he disappeared without explanation.
One night, I followed him and discovered he wasn’t leaving us—he was going to a support group at a recovery center. Through the window, I overheard him admitting he couldn’t bond with Lily because every time he looked at her, he was reminded of how close he came to losing me. He wasn’t rejecting her—he was haunted by the trauma of that night.
The next day, I joined a partners’ support group at the same center. That’s when I realized we were both carrying scars from Lily’s birth. Slowly, through counseling and honesty, we began to heal together. Now, I often catch Ryan holding our daughter with pure love in his eyes, and I know we’re moving forward as a family—stronger than before.
