​This is my first baby and when I got pregnant all I knew about birth was learned from dramatic scenes we see on tv and horror stories you hear from others. It is rare to hear someone tell the story of their lovely birth. Thankfully, I am now one of the lucky ones who had a great birth.

I found Gentlebirth very early on in my pregnancy and within days I was hooked. It was all just common sense. Gentlebirth made me excited about labour starting as I was really curious as to what labour would be like. 
I had a really positive experience in the Coombe. The day I went in to the hospital with my birth preferences I was all geared up for a fight in case they found any problem with it so I was delighted when they were all ticked off as no problem. 

I had a feeling the whole way along that I wasn’t going to go over my due date. From 38 weeks I started to get regular achy back pain and baby started to feel really low so knew my body was getting ready for something. On the evening of my 39week and 3rd day I was getting the back pain as usual and got down on the ground with my ball as I had done all the previous evenings. I did say to my husband that the back ache was a little stronger than usual but it was still just like a dull ache, nothing to write home about. I had to get up to pee a lot during the night and on a visit at 4.30am I noticed a trickle of pale pink. I rang the assessment unit and they said it was probably my waters, to put on a pad and go back to bed and see what happens. I woke my husband and told him that maybe tonight was the night so I calmly popped back into bed only to have to get up 15 minutes later to go to the bathroom again, except this time to release my bowels. I knew that this was definitely a good sign. This time there was blood but it was bright red. I was pretty certain it wasn’t waters as pad was dry but didn’t like the colour of the blood so rang the assessment room again and they said as I lived about half an hour away to maybe head in now to be checked so that I wouldn’t be stuck in work traffic.

 got my husband up and I decided I’d like a shower and to try and eat something before we left. Shortly after getting off the phone my “pains” started. I put this in speech marks because I doubted they were actually contractions because they were really manageable and also because they started at 4-5 minutes apart straight away. I had a contraction timer on my phone but even stopped using it for each one because I thought “Nah they’re coming too fast and are too manageable to be contractions.” We didn’t leave the house until nearly an hour after I rang the Coombe. But thank God they had told me to come in then because if I had waited (as I had originally planned) until I was certain I was really in labour then there is a chance I could have had this baby in the car or at home. I listened to my tracks on the way in in the car and had my tens machine on. I have to say I was not a fan of the tens. I didn’t fancy the sensation and didn’t like having to remember to change the intensity when a surge started. Surges were 3-4 minutes apart at this stage but not really lasting a full minute and again I was able to manage them.

We got to the hospital at about 6.30am. I was still not certain I was in labour and felt we could be sent home yet. I was still unsure that I was in labour that when I went up to the security guard I was a bit embarrassed to be there as I know I looked fine. I said “I THINK I’m in labour and was told to come in.” My husband has since said he started to see a change in me here while we were waiting to go up to assessment as I wanted to stand and move through each surge now. I’m not sure but I think it was at this stage that I stopped listening to tracks. I wasn’t experiencing very bad pain yet. We soon got up to the assessment room where as per my preferences I had my only vaginal exam. Thank God too because it wasn’t pleasant. But I was thrilled when the midwife said with surprise in her voice “You’re actually quite far along. 6cm.” I threw my hands in the air here and said yes, delighted, because in my mind movie I was 6cm on arrival to hospital! As I thought too my waters were still intact. 

7.25 am We were assigned a lovely midwife called Nadia who walked us very slowly down to delivery. She was walking slowly to make it comfortable for me but I remember having to slow down to her pace because I felt fine and could have skipped down. In the delivery room the midwife asked if I wanted to change or labour in what I was wearing. I had planned my outfit. It was a nice black wrap dress I had gotten compliments on during the pregnancy and thought if I was going to labour in day clothes this would be it. I had no problem with the idea of changing into a nightdress but thought I’d see how it went and might change after a while. Little did I know that labour would be so fast I wouldn’t have a chance to change. I had to have a line put in for antibiotics because I was positive for Strep B. This was when the midwife informed me I’d have to have continuous trace monitoring because of the antibiotics. I was disappointed at first because I thought it would mean I would be stuck on the bed but she assured me I could stay out of the bed. OK I wasn’t able to walk too far away from the bed but I was able to stay on my feet, sit and lean over the ball, lean on my husband. So it was more than enough mobility for me. 

At 8am we had a changeover of midwife. This time we had Niamh and she was just as lovely as Nadia. Both had read my birth preferences carefully and were very mindful of everything I wanted. My husband put on my playlist which for that time of year had lovely soothing Christmas songs on. It was at some stage here that the midwife suggested I get up on the bed and lean over the head of it. I did this and it was a very comfortable position. The tens machine was on all this time and remained on until after delivery but I completely forgot about it and didn’t feel it at all. I had intended not to have an epidural and this was in my birth preferences so it wasn’t offered. My husband knew various massage techniques and at the workshop Bernie Burke had shown us different acupressure points to use in labour but I just wanted to be left alone. What he did do and what was just magic was placing a cool, damp facecloth on my forehead. That was perfect. I was offered gas and air and I said I don’t think I’ll bother. But when the next contraction was finished and things had ramped up I shouted out for it. It was hooked up but I never actually used it as the surges were much more intense and faster and I just couldn’t get into a flow to use it. I remember being so grateful for the breaks in between each surge now. I actually didn’t realise that even near the end there would still be very peaceful and pain free breaks in between each surge. I knew there would be breaks but not that they would actually be completely pain free which was good because the surges were now very intense. I was very in control of my mind all this time.

As the surges were happening my body was really taking over but I remember my mind being completely clear and being able to talk to myself about how all this was normal and good. At 8.30am I started to bear down spontaneously. Niamh had been ready to pop out to get nametags ready but she saw me and changed her mind knowing there wasn't much time. Everything was happening without me having to think about it. I could hear myself making quite guttural noises as each surge happened. In my head I’d tell myself “Right. Next time I’ll try and stay quiet for the next one.” But then the surge would start and like I said, I had no control over my body. It was all quite primal and your body just does what it wants. When it came to pushing, just like Tracy says my body knew what to do. I didn’t actively do any pushing. I just kept breathing and my baby kept moving down. The only time the midwife coached me was when baby started to crown. I had to be reminded just to breathe for a moment and try to slow things. On the next surge baby’s head was out and all of a sudden her whole little body just slid out after it.

There she was! A beautiful baby girl, weighing 6lbs 14 ounces. Straight away my husband was helping me strip off and baby was put on my chest for skin to skin. As per my preferences we had delayed chord clamping. I had also requested a physiological third stage but I was so happy I didn’t care about anything anymore so I said to the midwife if she wanted to give me the injection she could. She, however, said that we’d give it a try and after 15 minutes and one push the placenta came cleanly away. Laura fed from the breast then for nearly 40 minutes. I don’t actually know when my waters broke because there was never any gush at any stage of the labour.
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The whole labour was barely 4 hours from start to finish. My sister and mother had warned me if I was anything like them that I would go fast but not this fast. I really do put it down to Gentlebirth and the fact that I had told myself that labour was going to be no big deal and that the surges would be an intense and strange sensation but not extremely painful. I just let my body do what it needed to do and didn’t fight anything. I had an open mind about my preferences and knew there was always a possibility things could change so I am more than thrilled that everything I had in my preferences went to plan. I’ve already been warned by a number of people that baby number two could be even speedier. While I shouldn’t be thinking about baby number two yet, with my little one only being 4 weeks but with an experience like I had I am now even more confident about going through the process again.