I was 41 weeks pregnant when I went into labour spontaneously and earlier that day I had been to the gym. During my pregnancy I had suffered with pelvic girdle pain, so I had tried to keep mobile and continue with basic core stability/ mobility exercises. Contractions started at 6:30 pm whilst we were at home. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was labour as all week, I’d had lots of discomfort, but this hadn’t progressed. As time went on, I knew this was the real thing as the intensity rapidly increased. Will put on the hypnobirthing mp3s and encouraged me to keep relaxed and calm. I rang the hospital, and they advised me to try to stay at home until my contractions were 3 minutes apart.

I was about to try and get in the bath, but my contractions had really started to ramp up and it was a very hot day. At this point they were 4 minutes apart and quite intense. I was quite sweaty and clammy so made the decision to ring the hospital back and come in.

We drove to the hospital at 1130pm which was thankfully only 5 mins away. When we arrived we went to triage and as we were unsure of how long we’d be there we left the hospital bags in the car until required. I was put on the monitor and examined by the midwife. At this point I was 3cm dilated and started vomiting profusely. They gave me some anti sickness medication, and this soon stopped. I was keen to get off the monitor as I found lying on the triage trolley very uncomfortable with my pelvic girdle pain. I wanted to be up and mobile and on the gym ball. The midwife offered me pain relief at this point: paracetamol and access to a bath or diamorphine. Straight away I opted for diamorphine, however, Will stopped me and reminded me of our birth plan and thought it may be a good idea to try the paracetamol and bath first. I had the paracetamol and got into the bath at around 1.30am. The hypnobirthing tracks were invaluable at this point, and I managed to get into a good routine of breathing in preparation for each contraction. Will was showering me as I bathed and as the room was very hot, I found the cold water really helpful for cooling me down. Whilst in the bath I looked at the clock and realised a couple of hours have gone by. I said to myself the contractions are not stronger than me, as they are me. I started to feel a real sense of control and reminded myself that in a few hours’ time we would meet our baby and that I could do this.