Birth story - Victoria and baby Luna

I woke up at 12.15am feeling a bit weird, went to the toilet and saw I had lost my plug, I decided to go and wake up my husband and noticed I was having surges although they were manageable. I started to use Freya to time them but after just a few inputs it said I was in established labour as surges were every 2 minutes and lasting 1 minute - which I was surprised at as I wasn't massively uncomfortable. I called the midwife at 12.30am and asked her to come and started to help my husband put up the pool between surges.

About 1am I started to feel like I needed to really focus on the surges and breathe through them but was still able to really manage them and using the app really helped me to count my breathing. My waters went about 1am too and the surges got more powerful. I knew it wouldn't be long and rang the midwife to find out her ETA. I really needed to push about 1.05am but the midwife hadn't arrived yet and the pool still wasn't warm enough, I remembered to stay calm and to breathe and knew it wouldn't be long before I met my baby.

The midwife arrived at 1.07am just as my husband got the pool to temperature. I told her I needed to push and the baby's head was there. She asked my consent to check my cervix and I agreed. She said I was fully dilated. The student midwife that was with her tried to check the baby's heart rate but another surge started so she couldn't. I again said I needed to push and wanted to get in the pool. After the surge passed I jumped in the pool. The whole time I was in total control and the surges were really manageable. My husband said he was so surprised how little noise I was making. The next surge came and I pushed and my daughter's head arrived at 1.15am! I waited for the next surge and the rest of her arrived too at 1.17am! A little over an hour after I had woken up!

I stayed in the pool for ages until the cord stopped pulsating having skin to skin with my baby. I got out of the pool for a natural 3rd stage. The midwives helped my husband clean up while I cuddled my baby and then they left after a cup of coffee and a natter. A few hours later our kids came downstairs surprised their new sister had arrived in the night and they hadn't realised.

We bought the digital pack and it was truly amazing. This is my 3rd birth but 1st hypnobirth and the difference in how much pain I felt was immense. I never once felt out of control or that the pain was unmanageable. I barely made any noise as I was so busy focusing and being "in the zone" that I just didn't need to. I can't wait for baby number 4 and to use all I learnt from the digital pack again!