Everyones birth is different, every pregnancy is different. My first pregnancy was sponsored by peanuts, cheese and apples…TOGETHER….as well as cheese and ham croissants from patisserie Vallerie. This pregnancy however, Nutella sandwiches are my preferred breakfast…..lunch and dinner. My first pregnancy I grew massive within weeks, my second, I was petite until the last month. There are hundreds of other differences between both I could list them all but that’s boring. So lets get down to the gritty stuff: Labour.

First of all don’t stress, don’t worry. I’m not going to lie and say its a breeze, I wont say its not scary, I won’t tell you it doesn’t hurt, it does, A LOT. But what I will tell you is women have been doing this for centuries, and with the pain, the hours of labour, the worry and the exhaustion, straight after I gave birth my partner asked me if I would do it again and I said yes so it couldn’t have been that bad right?!

I highly recommend doing an antenatal course during your pregnancy. This will teach you about your options and all things that may happen as well as hints and tips on how to raise baby. You do not have to do the NCT course which, if you ask me is unnesaserily expensive and a rip off. You can get the exact same course for free from your local health centre, ask your midwife. I also recommend a hipnobirthing course, but not one of the expensive ones, they have them for £20 roughly online. Going a little off topic, but still kind of on the same lines if you want to save money your local NCT or health centre will have “Nearly new sales” where you can get second hand goods for a fraction of the price. I would not recomend a second hand car seat though 😉

Anyway, so I awoke at four in the morning feeling like I needed to pee. I stood up and a whole heap of water just fell out of me. I ran to the bathroom and looked down. There was streaks of bloody water running down my legs I sat down and wiped and a huge bloody piece of what can only be described as snot came out. I called the midwife department at the hospital they told me to come in, so I did. After being subjected to an uncomfortable shoe horn being shoved up my vagina and left there to look for a pool of water, it was concluded that nothing was there and I must have weed myself and I was sent home. As soon as I got home it happened again so I called them and yet again they asked me to come in. They got a specialist to come down checked me and concluded my waters had indeed broken and I was booked in for an induction at 1pm the next day. A whole 21 hours after my waters broke.

So at 1pm me and my parter were in a bed in the hospital, a small tablet was inserted in me and we decided to go for a little walk around. At around 3pm I was in a world of pain, I was contracting constantly. I could hear women around me groaning and then getting a break, but there was no break for me. I knew something was not right, I called the midwife over and she checked me and the baby and said all was fine. I felt comfort in her words and just kept moving while in agony, I cant actually remember much of this, I do remember calling the midwife over on numerous occasions and her easing my worries. At 11pm a new midwife came on the ward as they were doing her hand over she stopped at me and asked how long I had been like this. I exclaimed in a pained voice “Since 3pm” She put a monster on me to check contractions and then looked at the original midwife and said “You mean she has been having constant contractions since 3pm and you have left her here? She is having a reaction to the pesserie.” She quickly called the ward and I was lifted in to a wheel chair and sent down stairs. Once I was in the room I was handed to another midwife who checked me and said I was 2cm dialated, She gave me gas and air and then gave me an injection to stop the contractions, it didn’t work.

At midnight I had had enough! I was in constant pain, I was exhausted, I was confused and wanted it to all stop. “Would you like an epidural?” She asked, I screamed “YES!” Thats right, little Miss “I want it to be natural” was screaming for an epidural. At 3am they managed to get someone to give me an epidural, they also wanted me to read and sign a piece of paper which I really couldn’t do in the state I was in so I asked my partner to read it and I signed it.

At this point I feel I should tell you how my partner was, as people always forget about the guy. He was ripping his hair out. He was stressed and worried, he felt helpless and I cant even begin to imagine what he was going through. He said he didnt know what to do, he read the piece of paper and didnt want to consent due to the clause that said “may cause paralysis” but saw the pain I was in. Once we had signed they told me to stay still…..thats hard when constantly contracting, believe me! My partner held me tightly trying to keep me still as I concentrated. Finally it was all over and I felt the warm trickle through my body as the pain disappeared. Finally they told me to sleep and me and my parter at 4am tried to rest. Him on a chair and me in the bed.

I was awoken for checks in the morning and we carried on the day talking to nurses and doctors who were in and out periodically, checking baby and myself as well as how dialated I was, I think I was fingered by everyone in the hospital! At one point a doctor and his students came in to check on me and I just flashed them all ready for another poke about down there, he looked at me with flushed cheeks and said “No I just need to check your stats”. My parter didnt leave my side, maybe because he was worried about how many other people I would show my bits too, but luckily we had packed snacks and water for him. At 4.30pm the pain returned and we realised the needle had fallen out of my back, at 5.00pm I was 10cm dialated and at 6pm she was born.

I don’t remember much about the hour but I do remember at one point thinking I couldn’t do it. I was tired, hadn’t eaten in 48 hours, and was weak. But I managed to push on through and we got there! I don’t remember there being much pain apart from the pain of needing a poo really badly and I do remember the relief and joy at seeing my baby girl for the first time. As I put her on my chest my parter said “You wanna do all this again?” and my response with no hesitation was “YES!”.