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TRENT Cotchin needed a moment to compose himself.

It was July 27 last year. The Richmond captain's wife, and the mother of his two other children, Brooke, was in the process of being rushed off for an emergency cesarean section.

"I suppose once the obstetrician makes the call, given it's an emergency, everything happens really quickly, and I just found myself completely rattled," Cotchin told Last Time I Cried.

"I was meant to be the sign of strength but I knew that it wasn't exactly what Brooke wanted, and the health of her and the baby are absolutely A1 and the most important thing.

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"But getting rushed down to theatre, I must have looked white, because the nurse came up to me. She was like, 'Hey, are you OK?' and I was like, 'I might just need a minute'.

"So they put me out in the waiting room, which was the worst place I could have gone.

"I just sat in this dingy little room, staring at the ceiling, going, 'Why am I out here? I'm not the one on the table about to go through probably one of the more challenging things in my life'."

Soon after that moment of despair came more positive tears, when Cotchin returned to his wife's side to welcome their third child and first son, Parker, to the world.

Their older two children are both girls, Harper and Mackenzie.

 "To watch all of our talented medical staff get to work and pull out a healthy baby and then realise it was a boy … I don't even know what came out of me then – it was tears of joy," Cotchin said

"It was the rawest of emotions. I was so proud of Brooke. I probably wasn't aware of what was about to come, with regards to recovery time.

"You don't realise the significance until you start to go through it. That was a hard time but an amazingly special time."

Cotchin said the experience made him appreciate not only his wife but all women even more than he already did. 

 "They cut through something like 32 layers of tissue and muscle and tendons," he said of Brooke's C-section.

"That's pretty significant, particularly on the back of going through a nine-month journey of carrying the baby, and us as men not contributing much, except for the initial part of the process.

"Then they have the baby, have to recover, still have to breastfeed and have to look after two other kids. I take my hat off to all women."