Jennie's story, Birmingham - home water birth using hypnobirthing

"Positive Birth Story – Home Water Birth using Hypnobirthing

Baby S born 7th April 2010 weighing 7lbs 15oz 

My due date was Thursday 8th April and on Tuesday 6th April OH had the day off work so that we could attend my grandmother’s funeral. Family members had 'joked' that the stress of such a day might trigger early labour. 

Having got through the service and wake feeling emotional but generally OK, I was having pretty regular Braxton hicks and we decided to take a short walk in the park later in the afternoon. We sat down to enjoy a cup of tea and a cake in the tea shop and I felt a different sensation in my bump which was more like a strong stitch. We took this as a signal to get home and comfortable, ordered a takeaway curry for dinner and caught up on my daily allowance of raspberry leaf tea. 

Lying on the sofa watching TV at about 11pm I felt a slight popping low down and to the front of my bump which felt like a little bubble bursting. I wondered whether this was my waters but couldn’t feel anything. Five or so minutes later I went to the toilet and realised that I did not have control of the fluid that was coming out. After sitting on the toilet for a few minutes I started to let myself believe that this was it and that my waters really had broken. 

I called the birth centre and the midwife on call said she would come out and see me within the next hour or so to assess what was going on. As we had planned a home water birth we had a pool to inflate and I had been anxious about the noise using the electric pump late at night so OH got on with inflating the pool while I relaxed in bed listening to the affirmations and rainbow relaxation CD (Hypnobirthing) on repeat. The midwife arrived sometime in between 12.30am and 1am and having checked my pads confirmed that my waters had broken, advised me to go to bed and get some rest and reassured me that for most women whose waters break early, labour starts within 24 hours. She also explained that if it didn’t, I would need to have antibiotics after about 18 hours and they would want to induce me after 24. She told me to call again when my contractions were coming every 5 minutes or so. 

With the birth pool inflated and the hot water boost on, we went to bed. I was listening to the affirmations and rainbow relaxation CD on my iPod when I experienced what I later realised was my first surge (contraction). The only way I can describe what this felt like was as if I was desperate for the toilet and had been holding it in for too long. I went to the toilet then got back into bed and dozed on and off for a couple of hours with the CD on my iPod and surges coming and going. 

By about 3.30am I found that breathing and relaxing whilst lying down during surges was becoming difficult and I was more comfortable moving around or sitting on the toilet so I was continually going back and forth to the bathroom. At about 4am I came into the lounge, lit some candles, put the affirmations and rainbow on the stereo and used the tens machine and birthing ball through each contraction. OH then got up at about 6am and started to prepare the room, laying shower curtains underneath towels to cover our (light cream!!) carpet and sofa and began to fill the pool as we knew this would take some time due to our small water tank! 

For the next couple of hours we continued like this, me leaning over the birthing ball and gradually increasing the power on the TENS machine as my surges got stronger. I was also timing my surges using 'Contraction Master' App. on OH’s iPhone. In hindsight, although this gave me something to focus on during this time, I think it did prevent me from fully relaxing and going inwards and I was always conscious of having an 'aim' of stronger, longer and closer together surges and checking my progress. 

During each surge I was trying to visualise a green balloon in my abdomen, inflating with each inhalation and having this to focus on was helpful although I did find that once each surge got stronger I had to breathe through my mouth rather than my nose and inhalations became more challenging. 

At approximately 8am-8.30am I called the midwife as my surges were now coming regularly every 5-6 minutes and were lasting anywhere between 30-90 seconds by my calculations. At this point I felt like I needed OH with me during surges and in between filling the pool with pans of hot water he came and massaged my back and pressed my shoulder (which had been a relaxation anchor we had learned and practiced at hypnobirthing) and reminded me of what we had been practicing in terms of breathing and relaxing. 

The midwife arrived sometime between 9am-9.30am bringing a student with her. She asked me some questions about the timing of my waters breaking, etc. and observed me during surges for about 30 minutes, feeling my bump and assessing how I was progressing. At this point she said that although I was having 3 in 10, I was not in established labour yet and told me that the surges would get a lot stronger than they were at that point. She said that they were going to leave me to it and to call her once I was regularly having 3 in 10 surges that were 60 seconds long. I asked her when I could get into the pool and was told that I needed to stay out of the pool until I was in established labour and there was a midwife present. In the meantime she said that I could have a bath if I felt that I would benefit from it. 

As soon as the midwives left I felt the need to move so I went and sat on the toilet. From this point the surges seemed to get quite intense and I was calling for OH to massage my back each time. I had started to tense up and OH was pushing my shoulders down with each surge and reminding me to breath. I stayed sitting on the toilet for about 30 minutes while OH filled the bath. At this point it felt like I wasn’t getting much of a break in between surges and they were feeling quite intense. As soon as I was able to, OH helped me into the bath and although the heat of the water was soothing in between surges, almost instantly they became much stronger and I felt a pressure pushing down which was uncomfortable whilst lying or sitting so I was lifting myself up with each surge while OH massaged and poured water over my back. In total I remained in the bath for about 30 minutes and during this time I first started to feel my body pushing. I told OH that it felt like my body wanted me to push and we both felt like I should be trying not to do that and to just focus on breathing. 

During the whole of my labour, this was the only point that I doubted myself and my ability to relax and have a positive experience. Not because of the sensations I was feeling but because I was remembering that the midwife had said that I wasn’t in established labour yet, that the babies head was only 3/5 engaged and that I would probably have a while to go yet. Had I realised that I was actually in transition at that point and that I was nearly there, I am sure I would have felt differently. As it was I was experiencing very intense surges and thought that I would have several hours ahead of me with worse to cope with. 

At about 11.30am I told OH that I needed to get into the pool despite having been told by the midwives that I shouldn’t. I just knew that I needed deeper water to get more comfortable and as soon as I had the opportunity I did just that. Getting into the deeper water so that I could lean over the edge of the pool and still have my bump and lower back submerged was a huge relief. At this point OH was calling the midwife, boiling water for the pool and simultaneously trying to massage and pour water over my back. He told the midwife that things had progressed quite quickly and during the time he was on the phone, the midwife was able to hear me during a surge and said that she would come over straight away. In terms of the noises I was making, OH described it as a “wail” I certainly wasn’t screaming or shouting and I don’t think I had any control over it. I never panicked or felt like I couldn’t carry on, just had to keep moving with each surge and I was still really benefiting from having water poured over my back and OH massaging me. Although my surges were very intense at this stage and I could feel my body pushing the baby down, I still wouldn’t describe this as the agonising pain that most women talk about and I think this is due to the fact that I was not at all scared and I was just letting my body do what it needed to do. 

The midwife arrived at 12 noon still with the student and has later told me that she was very frustrated that I was already in the pool when she had told me not to get in until she got there. She was also concerned that there wasn’t quite enough water in the pool and I could hear the panic in her voice as she looked down, saw the baby crowning and called the second midwife on the phone and told her to come quickly. I heard her saying to the student “this baby is coming now” and telling OH to get more water. She asked me whether I wanted her to order any gas and air and I replied yes as this was what we had discussed previously although I don’t honestly think that I would have used it, even if it had arrived in time! 

As the baby was on his way out, the midwife was struggling to get me to stand up to monitor the heart rate and surges were coming thick and fast. She was fantastic as although I had never spoken to her in detail about hypno birthing and breathing the baby out, she never once asked me to push, she just kept telling me to breath and to let my body do what it wants to do. I kept remembering the J breath and although I wasn’t able to do this quite as quietly and calmly as I had practiced, I did find it incredibly beneficial to breath in very quickly then blow out the exhalation as slowly as possible. Doing this and being guided by the midwife, the baby's head came out and stayed out at either 12.12pm or 12.15pm (I can’t remember exactly!). I could feel that the head was out and the midwife told me to just relax and wait for the next surge so his body could turn. With the next surge his body slipped out, the midwife guided him through my legs and helped me to sit backwards so that I could lift him out of the water in front of me. He was born at 12.17pm no more than 17 minutes after the midwife had arrived back at the flat! The second midwife arrived at 12.25 while I was still in the pool holding baby S who was alert and looking around very calmly at this point, turning his head when he heard either mine or OH’s voice (adorable!).

After a few more minutes of skin to skin in the water, I was helped out and onto the floor, propped up by lots of cushions and pillows to deliver the placenta. Baby S stayed with me during this time as I wanted the cord to stay attached until it had stopped pulsing. After 30 minutes or so, it had stopped so the midwife clamped it and cut it (OH didn’t really want to do this) and the placenta was delivered naturally shortly afterwards. 

The gas and air arrived at about this point and the midwife decided to keep it in case I needed stitches but when I was examined it turned out I didn’t need any. 

The midwives cleared up everything except the pool, even asking where I keep the cleaning products so she could scrub up a spot of blood off the carpet! They did their initial checks on Baby S, weighing him etc then left us to it. OH had some time with him skin to skin before I moved to the bedroom and got comfy. OH spent the next hour or so clearing everything away and putting all of the furniture back into place then we had a few hours in bed, just the three of us, relaxing, having lovely skin to skin cuddles with Baby S and talking about what an amazing experience we had just had.

Unfortunately later that evening Baby S started to show signs of being poorly and we did end up taking him into hospital but we were so pleased to have been able to give him a calm and relaxed water-birth at home and I personally felt rather proud of the fact that all my hypno birthing practice had paid off!!!

Having spoken to the midwife since, she said she couldn’t believe that this was my first baby and how well I had coped with the whole labour. She said that when she had seen me first that morning, the fact that I was so calm during surges was one of the reasons that she felt I was not in established labour and because I had not had an internal examination we would never know whether I was much further on than she had thought at that time or whether I had just progressed very quickly from that point onwards.

Although I didn’t have as calm an experience as we had witnessed on the DVDs in hypnobirthing class, I had an incredibly positive experience. It was very intense at times and I couldn’t say that it was totally pain free but it certainly wasn’t the agony that I had initially feared. I was in control throughout and I attribute this to the positive mindset brought about by regular practice and listening to the affirmations daily. The breathing techniques, massage, water and support from OH were all I needed in terms of pain relief."

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Helen's story, Manchester - really positive, 'easy' birth

"My pregnancy was pretty straight forward with no problems apart from the usual low blood pressure, anaemia, etc. I loved having a bump and enjoyed being able to eat whatever (and however much!) I wanted. I worked up until 36 weeks and left work feeling on top of the world and wondering if perhaps I had left a little too early.

The first three weeks of my maternity leave were chilled out and ! was pretty active, going shopping and meeting friends for lunch most days. I enjoyed my penultimate weekend before my due date at my parents' house in the North East, being run around after by my Mum and seeing friends for the last time as non-Mummy!

The week before my due date felt much different - every day I got a little more uncomfortable and began running out of comfy positions. I found it harder and harder to sleep each night and eventually even my sacred place, the bath, was uncomfortable to be in. I felt miserable in the few days before my due date and spent almost three days in bed watching TV and feeling sorry for myself. I'd been having period-like pains for about two weeks but had realised by now that they meant nothing. I felt like I was coming down with a bad cold and my sister-in-law had called me saying that's how she'd felt a couple of days before she gave birth. I ignored her comments and decided not to get my hopes up, as she'd also gone 12 days overdue!

My baby was due on Thursday 14th October 2010 and after feeling totally rubbish since the Monday, being told by all my friends and family that I'd probably go overdue wasn't really helping my mood. On the Wednesday I spent the day in bed again but decided to haul myself up in time for my boyfriend getting in from work. I thought I should try and make a little bit of effort so I cheered myself up a bit by doing my make-up and hair and giving myself a French manicure. I threw on a t-shirt and some Uggs and went and sat on the sofa while my nails dried. My period-like pains seemed a little stronger that day but I knew this probably meant nothing. I kept getting crampy feelings around my ovaries too. These kept coming and going for a few hours but weren't particularly painful.

At around 6pm on Wednesday evening the cramps seemed to get a little stronger and ever so slightly more regular. I timed a few just to put my mind at ease but after about five I realised that there was no pattern to the pains so stopped timing. They kept coming and by the time my boyfriend got in at half seven I was pacing the living room. He was excited but I was adamant that the pains weren't contractions. They didn't feel like people had described so I figured they must just be Braxton Hicks.

At about 10pm by boyfriend decided maybe we should have a bath as it could help with the pains, then I could go to bed nice and relaxed. We squished in the bath together and he timed a few of my cramps but still there was no pattern to them. After about 20 minutes I got out of the bath to get ready for bed. I went into the bedroom and sat on my bed on a towel while I struggled to reach over my huge bump to put some knickers on. When I stood up I noticed quite a bit of blood on the towel and (obviously) panicked! I rang my Mum with shaking hands and she told me it'd be fine but to give the hospital a quick call anyway just to see what they thought. The hospital told me to pop in just to double check everything was OK. I didn't feel worried anymore, more inconvenienced that we had to go out at 11 o'clock at night when all I wanted to do was go to bed!!

My boyfriend and I threw on some clothes and his parents came to pick us up to drive us to the hospital. I wasn't going to take my hospital bag but my boyfriend threw it into the car 'just in case'. All I kept saying in the car on the way there was, "we'll be home in an hour, we'll be home in an hour"...

My pains were getting stronger and were coming much more often than before. My boyfriend's Mum was sure I was in labour but I was still in denial. When we got to the hospital my boyfriend and I went through to a room where they hooked me up to a machine that monitors the baby's heartbeat. I sat in there for about an hour with my cramps getting stronger and stronger but they still weren't particularly painful, more uncomfortable. A nurse came to examine me and we were all astonished to hear that I was 7cm dilated!!! Well, they whipped me through to the delivery suite quick smart and into a beautiful room with a lovely LOVELY midwife called Erika. My boyfriend ran off to tell his Mum and Dad to go home as they'd be waiting a long time otherwise, and I excitedly rang my Mum and whispered, "the baby's coming!"

I accepted the gas and air they offered me to ease my now slightly painful 'contractions' and sat on the edge of the bed swinging my legs and chatting happily to my midwife. She couldn't believe how fast everything was going considering it was my first baby and it was a boy (and we all know that boys are known to be lazy buggers!) I had asked her if she thought I'd need an epidural but her response was, "if you were going to need one you'd have asked for one by now" - and I felt fine! Although my carefully thought out Birthing Plan went right out of the window - it was all going far too fast to be having a water birth! The thing that struck me most at the time was how fine I felt in between contractions. They eventually got pretty strong and obviously very painful but in between I felt on top of the world!

I was perched on the edge of the bed sucking on my gas & air and giggling in between each contraction for a while before my midwife explained that the baby's heartbeat had slowed down a bit and I should lie down. Within seconds I was surrounded my doctors, nurses and midwives and was being examined again. I think the baby was trying to get out but couldn't because I was sitting down! The next hour or so was a blur as I was examined, my waters were broken and the baby's head needed to be scratched to check the oxygen in his blood. I was still surrounded by medical staff and by this time I was asking for some Diamorphine. My feet were in and out of stirrups as they turned me from my back to my side then onto my back again. At one point I asked to go back on my side with my knees in the stirrups as I found it rather comfy and was ready for a nap! But no such luck, the baby was coming and there was no time for sleeps just yet. I remember looking at the clock and it was 3:15am - "I know it's a silly question but how long do you think I've got left?" I asked Erika. "He'll be here within the hour," she replied. "Wow", I thought, "I can do this!!"

Erika was almost spot on. I pushed for about ten minutes and with the help of my darling boyfriend and the amazing midwives, my beautiful baby boy Finn was born at 4:24am on Thursday 14th October 2010 (on his due date!!) weighing 8lbs 7oz.

My boyfriend cut the cord and had skin-to-skin contact with his little baby son while I went into theatre for stitches (yep, thats how bad my tear was! - ouch!).

The staff at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester were utterly amazing and I feel I owe everything to Erika, my midwife. My boyfriend was incredible throughout the whole labour and I feel so, so proud of myself for getting through it with no epidural and no tears!! I feel so lucky to have had such a relatively straight-forward and easy labour, especially for a first-timer. I would go through it again tomorrow if I could - it was the most magical, special, beautiful thing I've ever experienced and all the pain goes away the second you lay eyes on your perfect little baby.

I'm glad I was able to share my story with you, as it is so special to me and I'd shout it from the rooftops if I thought people would listen!! I hope that someone who is scared of giving birth reads about my experience and feels more confident about doing it. I know it's a different experience for everyone, but for some people it can go pretty smoothly!"

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Lauren's story, Coventry - unplanned home birth!

"My unexpected home birth!

So, its Thursday 21st January 2010, 4 long days over my due date and I have an antenatal appointment with my midwife. I sit and wait to see my midwife and finally go in about an hour late and she can tell I am about at the end of my tether, she does her usual checks and all seems well with baby number 2. She then offers me a stretch and sweep (joy) so I immediately accept. I never had one the first time as baby number 1 was early, and it really hurt!! In a haze of pain I vaguely remember my midwife saying that I was 2cms but at this point that did not go in as I had a very dull ache in my tummy, like a period pain that was all I could think about. The midwife said to me she had definitely dislodged my 'plug' and that hopefully this would be the start of my labour. I leave the midwife with everything crossed (well not my legs as I really, really wanted this baby out!) and still with the ache in my tummy, I get in the car and go home to my Mr who is waiting to go to work and my lovely daughter who is waiting for her tea. I had a quick conversation with my Mr before he shot off to work and told him what the midwife had done and that I had this pain in my lower tummy but he didn't really get it and went off to work. I carried on as normal, made mine and my daughter's tea, washed up, etc. I had a phone call from my sister about 6pm as she had been ringing everyday since a week before my due date as she was desperate to meet her new niece and I explained to her what had happened and having 2 children herself, she assured me I was on my way.

By 8pm the period type pain in my tummy had gone and I was soooo disappointed as I thought I was on my way to finally having my baby so I went to bed (in a strop) as normal. My Mr worked 2pm-10pm shift at that time so by the time he had got in from work and watched telly for a bit and whatever else he does before bed it was exactly 1:30 am when he came to bed as I remember waking up and looking at the clock. He got into bed and nodded straight off but I was awake now so I sat up to go to the toilet. I suddenly felt a bit of a 'gush' and I thought my waters had gone so I shuffled along the landing to the toilet to try and see if they had but as I sat down I had my first contraction. It was short and sharp and not too bad so I tried to carry on trying to go to the toilet when the 2nd contraction came, again short and sharp so I called out for my Mr who was sound asleep and couldn't hear me the first time! I shouted him until he woke up in typical man style, 'what, what, what's going on?' and I told him what had happened. He lies there for a minute while I get off the toilet and attempt to shuffle back down the landing when another contraction comes. I get back into the bedroom and another comes. My Mr soon sits up in bed and starts to take notice when I start shouting, 'ow, ow, ow, ow'! I tell him to start timing my contractions to see how long and how fast they are coming. Well I then have a huge contraction that just came out of the blue, nothing like the short sharp ones I had been having only minutes before. I tell my Mr to ring the babysitter (who was coming to look after my eldest daughter while we were at the hospital) and he replies with, 'are you sure it's time?'. I shout at him that yes I am sure, so he gets on the phone and starts ringing when another big contraction comes and I'm shouting again in pain and he says I have to go downstairs as the last thing we needed was our eldest waking up (suppose he was right). So I waddle down the stairs and make it to the bathroom downstairs just as another big contraction comes and I remember hanging off the door frame as my Mr is running down the stairs on the phone to the babysitter whilst throwing clothes on. He comes to me in the bathroom and says he is going to get the babysitter and he would be as quick as he could, as I have another contraction. I tell him I'm running a bath because that's what they tell you to do to ease the pain and I tell him to go and be as quick as he could. So off he goes and in the bath I get with contractions coming quicker and longer with every one.

It feels like an eternity has passed and he is still not back so I ring him to see where he is and he has only just got there to pick her up!!! So I scream at him to hurry up as I'm having a contraction as I'm on the phone and I slightly over react by telling him I'm 'dying' and that he needs to hurry up. I decide in between contractions that I would ring the maternity ward at the hospital and let them know what's going on and to ask their opinion. Well a very nice midwife answered just as I'm having yet another contraction and I have to let that pass before I can speak again. The lovely midwife on the other end tells me to get to the hospital as soon as I could so they could check me over. I thank her for her help and hang up from her and get out of the bath as I feel that I need to go to the toilet. As I get up out of the bath I notice that the bath has gone green but another contraction comes and I'm starting to feel out of it from the pain so that doesn't really go in. I now know that was probably when my waters went when I was in the bath, not when I was upstairs as originally thought. I make it to the toilet and I have this overwhelming urge to push so I do a little bit and I reach down and I can feel my baby's head!!! So I phone my Mr again to see where he is and he tells me he has just pulled back onto the drive and that he's home. He rushes in to me in the bathroom and I tell him to ring an ambulance because I can feel baby's head and that I am starting to push. He again asks if I'm sure for the second time that night and I scream that I am sure and show him all the blood that is all over the bathroom floor and he goes a bit of a funny colour and grabs the phone. By this time I'm practically out of it because of the pain that I'm in from the contractions and I only vaguely remember this part.

I remember my Mr running back into the bathroom on the phone and telling me to lie down; I do so by lying on the bathmat and then I get cramp in my leg and cant open my legs so he can't see what's going on down there. I remember him telling the person on the other end of the phone I couldn't open my legs because of the cramp, God knows what they said but I remember him pulling my legs open and him saying, 'I can see the head!'. Then I remember him saying, 'is the ambulance here yet?' to the person on the phone and I'm guessing they said yes as my Mr ran out of the bathroom. I remember shouting to him as he ran off, 'make sure they have drugs for me'. The next thing I knew 4 ambulance crew were in the bathroom with me and one of them gave me some gas and air, sweet, sweet gas and air, that I had for about 20 seconds before one of the woman ambulance crew members pulled the tube off the mouthpiece and said I couldn't have anymore because I had stopped pushing and was doing better without it, what a cow! Anyway the next thing I can remember was her telling me to push then telling me to pant then one big push and then I felt the pain go as I gave the last push and then there she was, my beautiful baby girl! At this point I still felt out of it and I could just about see my Mr's face as he wiped away tears and smiled at me. I looked down and there she was, my beautiful little girl being cleaned up by the ambulance crew. Then they handed her to me and one of them said, 'there she is, your little girl born at 2:42am'.

2:42am! That's 1 hour and 12 minutes since I had woke up!! Was that all? It felt like hours to me. The ambulance crew had asked my Mr to go and get something to put the baby in to keep her warm so he had gone off upstairs to get some towels and my bags that were supposed to have come to the hospital with me and I remember sitting on the bathroom floor holding my baby with a towel round her when one of the ambulance crew asked if they wanted them to cut the cord or if my Mr wanted to do it. I said that my Mr had wanted to do it as that's what we had planned in my birth plan but he was still upstairs at this point so we waited for him to come back down and then asked him. I think the stress of the night's events had got to him and he couldn't do it so the ambulance crew did it in the end. I remember my little girl going off for a cuddle with her daddy in the living room while I was still sat, stark naked due to being in the bath earlier, on the bathroom floor, because the ambulance crew could not deliver the placenta as they were not skilled enough to check if it was all there. They informed me though that the community midwife who was on duty was on her way and she would deliver it when she got there. One of them got me my dressing gown to put round me as it was January and I was sat on a cold wet bathmat on a tiled floor and said to me that I had done brilliantly; that is and probably always will be one of the nicest and appropriately timed words anyone has ever said to me! At some point not too much longer after that the midwife arrived and came in and gave me my injection in my leg to deliver the placenta and it was delivered and all accounted for! She checked me over and said I seemed OK, I didn't need any stitches (which was a huge relief as I had had 15 with my 1st) and that I could get up and sort myself out now. I remember thanking the ambulance crew and apologising for the fact they would probably be haunted by the image of me giving birth for the rest of their lives! They said not to be silly and congratulated me and went on their way. The midwife then checked my baby over and weighed her, etc and all was well with baby. Baby weighed 9lb 5oz!!! 9lb 5oz with no drugs and more worryingly no stitches either, and delivered in 1 hour and 12 minutes! The midwife finished off her paperwork and then went on her way as well. The next thing me and my Mr were looking at each other as if to say, did all that really just happen? Then we looked around and we had our 2nd beautiful girl asleep in her moses basket and somehow our eldest one still asleep upstairs in her bed!

It was the most bizzare thing to ever happen to me in my entire life and even now when I think about it I feel in shock that it happened so fast and there I was just at home with my baby as neither of us had to go to hospital and we were just there and had to get on with it. I feel that I missed out on that bit you have when you have your baby at the hospital where the midwife gets your baby their bottle and you get your lunch brought to you and the midwife helps you with a few things and it's just like a little bit of relaxing time after giving birth before you go home. I was just at home and less than 2 hours after giving birth I'm standing in the kitchen sterilising bottles. It was just madness but I wouldn't change it for the world! The ambulance crew were fantastic and I wish I had caught their names as I can not thank them enough, my partner either because if they had been 5 more minutes getting there he would have had to deliver our baby himself! By the time morning came my Mr was at the shop buying the newspapers from the day our baby was born, the headline on the front of our local paper was 'Baby Born on the Bathroom Floor' - a similar thing had happened in our city to someone else only days before!!"

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Gemma's story, Neath - quick delivery, 9cm on arrival at the ward

"They called it a rapid delivery

Born 20/02/2008

38 weeks

5lb 6oz

It's Tuesday 19th of February and I am thinking of what I’m going to wear to my sister in laws 30th on the 27th it was fancy dress . But my back is hurting so badly, being my first baby I put it down to just end of pregnancy aches and pains.

Wednesday 20th February 10 days till due date, I woke at 4.30am, feeling very uncomfortable, at 4.40am I had my first contraction I called the hospital and I was told to wait till my waters have broken then come in. By 5.00am they were less than 4 minutes apart and my waters had broken. It was time to get in the car it took 20 minutes to get to the Hospital, 15 minutes later I have to stop my self pushing unless I want to make a mess in the car.

When we arrived at the hospital we start the walk to the labour ward down a corridor which seemed to go on forever. Once I was there 4.35 am, soaking wet and in immense pain, I was asked to take a seat at this point I could not take any more and told the midwife I need to push. I was helped on to a bed for an examination, low and behold I was 9cm and the baby’s head can be seen. I was rushed into a labour room, 3 pushes later he had arrived it was 5.46am. There was no time for any pain relief and no stitches were required. I count myself very fortunate to have had such a speedy and uncomplicated birth."

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