Tuesday 6th December, major boredom had struck. It was day 2 of maternity leave. 9 months to go…I had cleaned the house several times from top to bottom, everyone was at work and Christmas was around the corner. I decided to go shopping for the last presents and have a day of wrapping in front of the T.V.

At 8.30am I got in the bath to get ready for the day and as soon as my bump sunk into the water, something happened. It went tight and sort of pulsed. It was different to the Braxton Hicks I'd been having. Out of curiosity, I used my contraction app and began recording when I got these feelings in my tummy. It was obvious what was happening, waves 5 minutes apart lasting 2 minutes.

Having rung my husband, I rang the birth center to let them know what was happening. I told Midwife Carol that I was staying at home in the bath as we chatted. She wanted my surges to be closer together, which was fine by me. I told my husband to come home having had 30 minutes of surges. The waves came and went, leaving me convinced that I would be taking a trip to the birth center leaving still preggers.
I waited for him to help me out of the bath and allowed my body to get rid of the waste in my body on the toilet (how clever is that). The waves were more intense once I'd gotten dressed, so I made my way downstairs and chilled over my birthing ball on my knees on the living room floor. I felt safe and happy to deliver her right there on the rug...Josh was having none of it. All my energy was where it should be, in my uterus, pushing my baby down with each surge, so there was no way I could stand up, I couldn't even feel my legs! Josh was more than happy to help me in to the car at this point. I cuddled onto my nursing pillow as I fell asleep on two occasions. Minutes before arriving at the birth centre, my waters gushed all over the seat."I'm sorry, my waters have gone." Josh looked at me replying, "Doesn't bother me, it's your car." (Lesson learnt - put a towel down next time).

As we parked up, having a break in surges, I legged it down the path to the birth centre entrance, so calm and relaxed that I fell asleep on the reception desk, gently waking to Midwife Julie rubbing the base of my back, guiding me into a room. 

After a tour of the centre weeks before, I had begun visualisations of the room we have viewed. Visualising my birth story like it had already happened, birthing my baby in ‘Jasmine’ room. So when we were taken into that exact room, I was over the moon, a real rush of those wonderful birth hormones. Julie gently asked me to get on the bed on my back so I could be examined. How on earth, just HOW do ladies labour on their backs? I was keen to get off the bed and let Julie know this, politely of course.

"Rebecca, you're fully dilated! You've done it all at home on your own!" She wandered off, I assumed to get everything ready. I informed Josh that I needed the toilet and so he helped me get off the bed and took me to my en-suite. The maternity assistant had begun running the birth pool. My hopes and dreams were all going exactly how I wanted. Everything I'd trained my body to do for the last 6 months were paying off.

"ARE YOU PUSHING?" Julie ran in and assisted me off the toilet and back on to the bed. "I've been a midwife for over 20 years and I've never delivered a baby on the toilet and I'm not going to start now!" She lowered the bed and adjusted the back of the bed to where I wanted it to be. The feeling from surges and waves to pushing were totally different. There was no discomfort, just this lovely feeling where you can't help but go along with what your body is doing. It's not how I imagined at all, but it actually felt quite nice.

Having been there 10 minutes, I was topless, pantless, orange juice with straw in the mouth, hugging the back of the bed on my knees with 2 strangers looking as my ass. As unnatural as it is to be observed and mentored through birth, this gave me peace of mind. Julie hadn't seen my birth notes at this point because we had got to this point so unexpectedly fast. We expected to be 2cm and sent off on our merry way, not 'let's get pushing'.

Calm, in control, reading my body like a book, remembering all those points I needed, my mind completely switched off. I was in THE ZONE! My down breathing techniques pushed my baby closer and closer to entering the world. With each bare down, I felt my baby come nearer until I could feel her weight just 'there'.
'Careful choice of words' was another point on my preferences and a very important element of hypnobirthing. Words are powerful and the wrong ones can have a profound effect on the human body, especially words such as "push through that burn Rebecca". I wasn't feeling a burn until you mentioned the word ‘burn’! "Get the episiotomy kit ready". NO THANK YOU! That instantly sent adrenaline flying through my body. I had to rein it back in and repeatedly told myself 'get rid of it, get rid of it, push it away Becky'. Thankfully, I had trained my body to do this quickly, but I can see how easily it could have gone very differently at this point had I not, all because of a word.
So yes, I then felt that burn, which wasn't there until I heard the word. This is where I really had to concentrate and bring myself to a new visualisation of a pebble creating ripples in a pond of water lily, opening up, bring baby closer and out. "Is her head out?" Josh had a peak as baby looked up at him, moving herself around to adjust her position in the pelvis. I concentrated on bringing my heart rate down, riddled with excitement that I was seconds away from meeting my first born. With the next movement, my muscles threw my baby into the world with no effort from me and my body went totally numb. A huge rush engulfed my body.
"I DID IT, I DID IT!"

It was nothing like what was written on my preferences list, it was 100 times better than I could ever have wanted.

My body is incredible!

Human nature allowed my body to birth my baby in such a calm, controlled, content way because it did exactly what it was designed to do.

Annie Rose was born a tiny 5lb 8oz at 38+1 weeks at Calderdale Birth Center, at 11.51am on the 6th of December, just 40 minutes after arriving through the doors, 3 hours and 21 minutes after my first suspected surge. She was born in bright lights, on a bed on all 4's, with people talking all around. No detriment to me or her, it was perfect. She was placed instantly on my chest and cord clapping was delayed.
I felt on top of the world! My baby was here, looking up at me, not a sound came from her as she looked around, she was definitely a hypnobaby, so content and quiet.