So my friends and family joke that I sneezed and my daughter was born. It didn’t quite happen like that but it was as natural and normal as sneezing is! 

11.30pm at 38 weeks and 5 days my water breaks. I was so shocked with how much liquid was coming out (totally different for every woman) and the fact it was a slightly pink colour,  but I was so excited that this meant we were much closer to meeting our baby. 

I called the hospital to let them know and they asked me to come in to be checked. On arrival they asked if I was having any contractions. I told them I was having some tightenings but nothing different than the last couple weeks and nothing I couldn’t talk through. They told me (after all checks were ok) to go home and get a good nights sleep and booked me an appointment for 24 hours time in case things hadn’t progressed. At this point I was thinking I would have to go in and be induced which wasn’t my “plan” but I was so excited about the prospect of meeting my baby that I was just focussed on going home and getting a good sleep to store up all the energy I could. 

We got home around 1am. I told my husband to go back to bed and that I would have a bath as I felt a bit gross since my waters broke. When I was in the bath I noticed my tightenings were a little more intense but nothing too uncomfortable . I moisturised (haha!), made a hot water bottle and got in to bed.

 After about 20/30 minutes I couldn’t sleep and decided to wake my husband as I thought it was wise to time my tightenings. He downloaded the app and noticed after about 30 minutes that they were lasting a fair amount of time in quite quick succession. I asked him to call the hospital to let them know. He called and they said that was great but we needed things to carry on progressing like this and I was probably only in very early labour (In hindsight I wasn’t) and as a first time mum things can take a while (also a lie). 

Over the next hour or so I had a couple baths, used the tens machine, walked around, bounced on the ball, listened to birthing affirmations, did my relaxation techniques and pooped like a machine. 

My husband called the hospital again to say that I had told him I wanted to come and explore some pain relief as I was quite uncomfortable. They told him I was probably still very early and would get sent home or if I wanted any pain relief I would have to go to the labour ward (not what I wanted) so we stayed at home. 

By 4.15am I told my husband that I had the urge to push. I also had a urge to gag and lots of the remainder of my mucus plug was coming out. He rang the hospital and said that I was wanting to push. They asked how quickly we could get there and as we lived 1.7 miles away the answer was quick. 

My husband threw the bags in the car as well as me and drove to the hospital as I breathed through my tightenings. We got there, left the car on double yellows and waddled as quickly as I could upstairs. 

The midwives were waiting at the door, took me in to a side room and asked to examine me. The midwife told me I was 10cm plus 2 and on the next contraction we were to get to the birthing room. 

I managed to waddle to the birthing room and naturally put myself on all fours. At this point my body was naturally bearing down with each tightening without me even thinking about it. I asked if they could fill the birthing pool and I was told there wasn’t enough time, that didn’t bother me at all. My husband asked if I could have some pain relief as I had only had two paracetamol so I was given gas and air. 

Everyone in the room was very silent and let me follow my body. Our daughter was born at 4.59am after arriving at hospital at 4.30am. 

Never once did I feel out of control or unable to cope. I listened to my body, lent on my partner and focused on the fact that every tightening bought my baby closer to me. 

Throughout my pregnancy I did hypnobirthing so every day I listened to my birthing affirmations, relaxation music and practised relaxation techniques. These are what I used when labouring at home and what I firmly believe led me to do my whole labour at home feeling in such control. 

Birth is natural, normal and healthy, it’s nothing to be afraid of, it will give you the biggest gift of all.

Thank you George, for sharing the gorgeous moment you met Sloaney Bear.

Georgia is on instagram: @georgemcdonald93