A tale of two friends

• We watched a fireworks display
• When she arrived, I was cleaning the house
• The contractions were hard to get through
• I could feel the baby moving down
• It was one of those perfect moments

I woke up early on Sunday at 5:00am and spent an hour with contractions every 10 minutes. I had just decided to put on the TENS machine when they stopped. Same thing happened at 8:00am and this pattern carried on for the rest of the day the rest of the day. We decided to go to a fireworks display at DD1's school at 5:00pm and walked up, had a lovely 2 hours there, saw a lovely fireworks display, ate toasted cheese sandwiches and hotdogs, drank mulled wine and then said to the head teacher: 'I am going home to have a baby now'.

We put kids to bed at 7:30pm and sat down to watch Chicago on DVD. Contractions started again every 7 minutes, then every 5 minutes. I kept in contact with my girlfriend Lynne (whom I know from Babyworld) on MSN messenger and also spoke to two other friends on there, who afterwards said they had no idea I was in labour!

Lynne had agreed on the Thursday to step in as birthing partner as my girlfriend, who was meant to come along, was unable to as her son was down with a bug. Even though Lynne and I had known each other for four years this was the first time we were to meet in real life! By 10:30pm Lynne and I agreed it was time for her to come down as she had a 1.5 hour drive to get to my house. When she arrived at half-past midnight I was still contracting regularly and cleaning the house, having decided mw might not like all the glitter everywhere… hazard of having two girlies who like glue and glitter! We sat down, had coffee and a laugh then I went back to sorting things whilst Lynne checked out my birthing bag so she knew where everything was as we needed it.

By 2:20am I was surprised to hear from my husband and Lynne that I was contracting every two minutes. We decided to phone for the midwife. I explained I was in labour but they seemed to think I was too calm and kept me hanging on the phone. Once my two minutes were up, I gave my husband the phone whilst I coped with the contraction. My husband was told a community mw would phone us shortly. Within 20 minutes of us having phoned, the midwife, Chris, was at our door and I went into the birth pool shortly after she arrived.

The midwife rang the hospital and asked for a waterproof sonic aid to be brought up. We had a laugh over the idea of my husband going to the local 24-hour petrol station for condoms (to put over the one she had with her that was not waterproof!). The second midwife Liz soon arrived. She was also very sweet and also followed birth plan so it was a very relaxed labour and we laughed a fair amount.

Lynne and my husband put up with lots of hand squeezing, as I felt, once in the pool, that I needed to hold someone's hand with each contraction. They were also willing suppliers of water, homeopathic remedies (mainly Lynne's domain) and chocolate biscuits (singular, sadly!) and LOTS of encouragement and nice words. By 5:00am I started to feel bearing down with a few contractions but they did not feel as strong as they had with my previous labours. However, I went with them as it felt he right thing to do. The contractions had spaced out at this point though, coming every 5-7 minutes. By 5:30am it was suggested that I have a internal so we could see what was happening. I was about 5cm, perhaps more.

I found this really difficult to deal with. I spent the next 20 minutes talking to my baby, willing it to get out. I also tried to walk around in the pool a little but found that very painful for my back. My son (21 months old) woke at this point and ended up downstairs in the lounge watching his current obsession, Toy Story, and charming the pants of the midwives.

Around 7:00am the gas and air ran out and the next bottle was faulty so they had to phone the hospital for more. At this point my contractions had speeded up considerably and I was finding it VERY hard to get through them. Lynne talked me through each one. She must (in retrospect) have really tuned into my contractions as I was having trouble finding the stop and start and was getting close to hyperventilating. Gas and air thankfully arrived and our daughters woke up.

At this point midwife was getting worried that I was dehydrating and kept trying to get me to drink more water. I was also getting a little hot in the water and after a while it was decided I was to come out for a little while to cool down. In retrospect, I knew I was fairly far on in labour as I was having trouble talking and balancing at this point. My husband virtually lifted me out of the water and Hilary (community midwife) arrived.

I was laying on my right side on the floor (having insisted I wanted to be on my left side whilst in the pool). They suggested I move to my left side but I refused - I could feel the baby moving. I sucked desperately on the gas and air mouth piece then shouted out for NICK as I could feel baby moving down and knew he was not in the room. He came running in and next thing I felt baby move down and the head came out, followed by shoulders and body!

I opened my eyes and looked straight into the eyes of my two oldest daughters standing holding hands with stars in their eyes, having just watched the birth of their sibling. I turned and they handed me my baby without any of us knowing the sex. I opened the towel and told everyone it was a baby girl. The girls laughed and the entire atmosphere seemed to lighten. Everyone was saying how lovely she looked (had to agree there). Lynne gave me huge hug and Nick was saying over and over how well I had done.

It had not been our intention for the kids to be present during delivery, but in retrospect I am THRILLED the girls were there. They LOVED being part of Aoife arriving and are both besotted with her. Looking down at my baby daughter on my tummy and watching my two big girls' joy of what they had just witnessed will stay with me for the rest of my life as one of those perfect moments.

Where to next?

• Read accounts of different types of birth
• Read accounts of other home births