"In a caesarean they put a screen up in front of you, you can feel very disconnected and it can be very quick, and then the baby is handed straight over to a pediatrician and taken away … and for some people they don't even get the baby brought back to them and they can have a long separation," she says. "There was no screen in front of me, I was participating, and whilst I could not see them actually doing the surgical cut, I was intricately involved, I could help participate, it was very emotional, it was just wonderful."

Ms Chapman says she read about a mother in Queensland who took part in an assisted caesarean and so made arrangements for the procedure at the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women. Hers is the second in Perth this month, with another planned. Ms Chapman, a nurse for 10 years before becoming a midwife, says mothers do not need medical experience to have an assisted caesarean. "You have to be very motivated to want to participate and for some people they don't like the thought of that, the thought of touching their baby or being near their tummy and that's fine," she says.

"At the end of the day, birthing is all about choice and women making informed choices. "I believe it was safe, I feel fine." But women should not consider assisted caesareans ahead of vaginal birth. "I still think a vaginal birth is the best way to birth your baby," Ms Chapman says.

"But for those of us who don't necessarily have that opportunity, this is a way of making an intervention experience a better experience. "It was just amazing; I was crying before I started because it was just so emotional. So, basically, the two doctors there got his head in the right spot, but I was really the main person who touched our child first up and that was pretty amazing, because that's not what happens normally." The obstetrician who took part in the procedure, Chris Gunnell, says assisted caesareans are unlikely to become mainstream.

"Speaking to a lot of women and talking about this, a lot of them are actually grossed out about the idea, they don't like the concept of helping," Dr Gunnell says. "I don't think it will become standard and I don't think it should become standard. There are still a lot things to work on, things like infections."

But in theory there were no medical reasons why a husband could not also assist with a caesarean. Despite the benefits — that a mother gets to touch her baby immediately before it is taken away to be assessed and cleaned up — Dr Gunnell says assisted caesareans will remain on the fringe of birthing in Australia. "I don't want women to choose to have a caesarean because of this," he says.

"We need to be very clear that this is not a good alternative to a vaginal birth; the caesarean section rate is very high." No Melbourne hospitals have yet reported women asking for an assisted caesarean.

For Ms Chapman, it was all about giving her and husband Ed a chance to fully participate in Thomas' birth. "I had that skin-to-skin contact," she says. "I was just doing all that connection and bonding with him. "It's amazing to be one of the first people to touch your baby.

"I lifted him up, and when I was lifting him up, that's when we got to say, 'Oh my goodness', we have had a boy … it was really overwhelming." How I helped deliver my baby boy

■I put special aqua-gel hand-cleanser on and a midwife with sterile gloves put the long, sterile gloves on me. ■A sterile plastic sheet was then placed across me. I laid my hands down and they put a sterile sheet over the top. ■The doctors birthed Thomas' head and … they guided my hands down to get them in the right spot because I couldn't see.

■It started off as a standard caesarean where they do the incision, cut through my skin and muscle layers and then cut my uterus to help get him out. They then birthed his head out so it was out of my abdomen … I then reached forward and they guided my hands to the right position. ■I then lifted him from his head and the tops of his shoulders straight out, straight onto my chest — it was just amazing.

NAOMI CHAPMAN