Birth story - Angela and baby Annalivia

At around 4am, myself and my husband felt a click in my tummy, At 4:15am my waters came gushing down. At around 6am my surges started. Counting in for 4 and out for 8 I got through the surges, being in a meditating state of mind during the resting periods.

At around 10am we called the midwives as I was having regular 3 surges every 10min. By 12 noon my surges were coming every 2 minutes. That last surge must of been really intense as I was sick straight after the surge had finished, after which my surges slowed down. The midwives recommended drinking hot water and honey to build my strength and whilst having each surge doing some gentle squats to get the surges coming in thick and fast. It took another 4 hours to get the surges to come every 2 minutes. I didn’t want to know how dilated I was as I didn’t want to feel disappointed if I wasn’t far but I felt that it was a good time to get in the birthing pool.

After a couple of surges, at the end of each one I got a sense to push. These senses to push got stronger and after an hour I calmly gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. I remember the midwives saying that the baby is so happy and that’s because Mummy is also nice and calm.

I cannot thank enough the Hillingdon Home Birthing Team for being so calm and helping me through the intense surges learning some really useful techniques to ease the pressure. My husband for guiding me through the surges and whispering wonderful words of positivity throughout labour and especially during the last hour.

A big thank you to this group for the inspiring stories and the positive birth company for their amazing digital course. The course has been such a useful tool as I was able to stay in control and recognise each stage of birth.