Angela's Birth Story

My due date was a Monday and the next day (Tues) I had a midwife appointment. She told me the head was still not engaged, so I didn't think anything was going to happen for a while. I decided to practise some rocking just to get things moving! Wednesday was another normal day; I had taken my daughter, Elisha, to school, been to Sainsburys. Elisha came home from school, we had dinner and I had put her to bed at about 8pm. It was then that I first noticed a strange sort of tummy ache, but it wasn't at all painful so I didn't think much of it at first.

About 8.30pm I thought I needed the loo and had a show. It was then I thought something might be happening, but I still wasn't in a lot of pain so I thought things would happen slowly and there was plenty of time. My husband thought we should ring the hospital to let them know, which we did and they advised paracetamol and a bath and to ring again if we needed further advice. By 9.15pm the contractions were pretty strong and regular, although they weren't lasting very long, so I was still convinced we had hours to go and there was no rush.

At 9.30pm my husband decided to ring my parents to come and stay with Elisha. I should say that while I was having contractions at home I tried to walk about and keep moving and I found leaning on the sofa and rocking very helpful whilst breathing through the contractions. I was also using a TENS machine. My parents arrived and just at that moment I had a really strong contraction which lasted about 40 seconds and my husband decided that it was time to go to hospital! We arrived at the hospital at about 10.20pm and when the midwife examined me she said I was about 7cm dilated.

I was really surprised, but very pleased to hear this as I hadn't expected things to happen so quickly. I was in the 'home from home' room which was very comfortable and relaxing and I had taken a CD along to play. I found a comfortable position kneeling on the floor and used the birthing ball to lean on. This was very comfortable to 'roll' on whilst resting between contractions. Very soon after I had the urge to push and whilst concentrating on my breathing I also found I was making some very strange grunting noises to help with the pushing!! Josh was born at 11.34pm weighing a healty 8lb 9oz! Looking back the whole experience was very calm and relaxed, the surroundings were homely and comfortable and my midwife was lovely, although it all happened rather quickly I don't think I appreciated it at the time