Birth story - Mum and baby girl

*Trigger warning* - stitches (do not worry), Heavy bleed, Use of word contraction (didn't worry us)

We were incredibly lucky and grateful to have fallen pregnant on our first round of IUI (it's possible!) We were prepared to be in this for the long haul!

My pregnancy was fairly uneventful. A small amount of bleeding in the early weeks. Which seemed terrifying at the time but I was monitored closely with scans, and reassured this is very common. Eventually this settled down. Other then this, I had the usual heartburn and a few Braxton hicks.

The day before my waters broke I lost my mucus plug. Confirmed by our poor midwife.

It was a completely normal day, I was out on a 2 hour dog walk with a friend. (We didn't plan on it being this long, we got lost in the woods, thank god the waters didn't go then!

We had a hearty meal this night, which looking back must of helped my strength! A good old home made steak and ale pie.

During the night I felt what was my waters breaking.

We called the hospital and were told to come down. I put a sanitary towel on as I heard they can confirm it being waters breaking this way rather then a physical examination, which was correct. Waters definitely broken.

I was scheduled for an induction 2 days later in case I didn't go into labour.

We were sent home. Went to bed and within the hour my contractions began nice and steady.

We stayed at home as long as I could using the Freya app and up breathing. My partner lit my favourite candle and dimmed the lights.

When we were alerted to on the app we made our way to hospital. This was after about 4 hours at home.

I put in my headphones and played my birth playlist in the car. As I expected, the contractions started slowing down as we were going into hospital.

I was examined on arrival and confirmed I was 4cm dilated so was able to stay.

As expected, things did slow down for a little while but I managed to get back into the zone. We had a lovely birthing pool room, tealights, our own music, dimmed lights. All as planned I got in the pool. This was an incredible relief to the tension in my back.

After a few hours I wasn't progressing as quick as they expected so the midwife examined me again and could feel that not all of my waters had broken so she managed to do this herself. This was fine, not uncomfortable.

This really sped things up!!

The up breathing quickly progressed into down breathing and the "mooing" began. I can honestly say you really don't care what sounds you're making at the time!

I had the positive affirmation playlist on in the room too which was especially helpful towards the end.

I had a bit of a bleed as the head was crowning so was asked to come out of the pool. Once out our daughter was born within 5 minutes.

They notified me that I'd need a couple of stitches. Something I did worry about during pregnancy but honestly when your baby is in your arms, as described in the course, oxytocin takes over and you barely feel a thing.

Despite the bleed and the small tear I felt like this was a positive experience.

Throughout my labour both my partner, mum and midwife described me as calm, and this has to come down to the positive birth company.

Both me and my partner felt prepared and aware of what was going on throughout labour. We now recommend this to everyone!

To those of you who are pregnant you have such an incredible time ahead. Its exciting, and I promise, you'll feel invincible.