I thought I would message you my birth story (finally got round to completing one).

Due date came and went, me and my husband Chris planned a “date day” to keep us busy, as we knew it would be unlikely that our baby would arrive on his due date. A week overdue a community midwife came to visit me at home to discuss being induced at 41+6 days. She also offered me a membrane sweep but I declined it.

One week and one day late, labour started. I woke up at 7am with surges; I waited to check that they were regular before calling my husband who was at work. Two hours into the surges I decided to bake some mini muffins to take into hospital to snack on. The surges were not painful, but they did become more intense as time went on. At around 10am we called the birthing suite, who advised us to call the labour ward as they were busy. When we called the labour ward they advised us to wait another hour and call them back.

We went into hospital around 11; we walked into Frimley Park and only needed to slow down when I had a surge. At the hospital the midwives did not believe I was in labour as I was laughing and smiling. When they checked I was already 6cm dilated. Soon after the check I was in the birthing pool. I did not enjoy the pool as I could not get into a comfy position. My waters broke at 1.30, in the birthing pool.

I used breathing techniques to manage the surges and around 3pm my surges slowed down due to being very relaxed. They were not long enough to push the baby out. As my surges slowed down the midwife advised me to have some artificial Oxytocin to hurry the delivery up. We came to an agreement to have another half an hour pushing before having artificial Oxytocin. I had artificial Oxytocin which made the surges longer and stronger, I still used my breathing techniques and at 5.33pm Dean Charlie Wasley was born.

We had skin to skin immediately after birth, delayed cord cutting and he was breastfeed not long after. It was a very positive experience and I can’t wait to do it again in the future.