I used my surge breathing for as long as I could and then at around 3pm I stuck the TENS machine on. I did loads of deep breathing. I listened to the hypnobirthing track and had dinner at around 6pm. I’d just managed to finish it when the surges started getting really strong.

My mum arrived at 7pm and I had my hypnobirthing track on but had just had a big, long double contraction so was a bit teary. She calmed me down by rubbing my thighs and reminding me to breath slowly. We called the midwife & Mark began setting up the pool. Once the pool was set up Mark nipped out to get some snacks and literally as soon as he left my contractions got really intense and I had an urge to push.

My mum kept me calm and told me to use little blows (like blowing out candles) instead of pushing - it was really hard to stay focused, but I definitely noticed less pain when I breathed into the surge.

The midwife arrived at around 8.20pm and by this point I was on my knees on the floor holding onto the side of my bed. The room was nice and dark just with a pink salt lamp on. The midwife had a quick read of my notes and listened in to baby’s heartbeat and then told me that she was off to get some more towels as baby wanted to come now. My mum had to call Mark to come back from the snack run, (thankfully all snacks had been collected!).