Astro’s birth began with a morning membrane sweep 10 days past his due date. I experienced some mild cramping throughout the day but carried on looking after almost 3 year old Capri. As we sat down to dinner in the early evening I realised that the sensations were coming pretty regularly. So I monitored them for an hour and found they were coming every 5 minutes and lasting for a full minute. I spoke to my lead maternity carer to let her know I was in labour. Then I went to bed to listen to my own calm birthing audio recordings and easily drifted off to sleep.

A couple of hours later I woke with some indigestion but after some antacids I easily went back to sleep using the audio recordings. At 10pm that night I awoke to my waters breaking, we made a few calls, waited for childcare to arrive, and then made our way into the hospital. At the point of moving around I felt some real discomfort around the intense and strong sensations I was experiencing, so I contemplated an epidural, but decided that what I was experiencing was intermittent and manageable.

At the hospital my lead maternity carer inspected me and advised I was 6cm dilated. On went the audio’s again as I tried to relax my body to neutralise the intensity of the sensations. But a few minutes later that instinctual urge to bear down overcame me and a mere 20 minutes later Astro was in my arms. No tears, no pain relief, no time to get in a birth tub (even though I actually imagined delivering in water for both births). And while it was an uncomfortably intense birth due to the speed, as soon as it was over so was the discomfort. I was easily moving around, I felt incredibly relaxed and I was able to enjoy my new baby as he eagerly breastfed.