On 21 February 2023 at 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant I spontaneously went into labour. It was a Tuesday
and I’d sent Sam and Stevie out so I had the morning to myself. I had a long magnesium bath, put on a face
mask, washed my hair and had a big cry. That afternoon we went on a family walk with my mum in the
hopes that a walk would get things started. It was very relaxing and calm and by the end of the walk I was
feeling some very faint cramps. We went home, had dinner together as a family and just as dinner was
finishing up, I started getting stronger cramps. I think instinctively I knew that this was the start of labour
and not another false start, so I sat on the floor and played trains with Stevie savouring the last moments as
a family of three. Sam then took Stevie for a bath and put her to bed. By some miracle, she fell asleep really
quickly which was lucky because by the time she was asleep my contractions were established. I sent a
message to Nat at 7:45pm giving her the heads up that labour had started.

I felt my energy shift and I dropped into myself almost instantly, any fears or worries I had were gone. My
goal for the labour was to keep moving, so I started walking around the lounge room, adding the final
touches to the space - turning the fairy lights on, adding oil to the diffuser, dimming the lights and starting
my playlist. When a contraction would come I’d stop, lean forward, sway my hips from side to side and
breathe through horses breath. Meanwhile, Sam was madly following our checklist, inflating the birth pool,
filling it up with water and checking all the equipment was ready to go.
It felt like things were progressing very quickly compared to my first labour (which was 24 hours). The
contractions were consistently ramping up, I was still moving, walking, swaying and breathing but I felt like I
wanted to be closer to the ground and I needed Sam to push down on my hips.
At 9pm, Sam messaged Nat to say that contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, that I was still being bossy but
unable to talk during contractions. I told Sam that it was still too early for Nat to come over.
20 minutes later, Sam made the call and Nat was on her way!

In the meantime, I kept labouring on the floor on a beanbag, each contraction felt so big and so purposeful.
My lounge room was surrounded by mantras that I’d written and stuck on the wall from 37 weeks. I didn’t
read them once during labour but they were engrained into my subconscious and I just kept repeating to
myself “open, soften, relax”, “my body knows how to do this”, “embrace every second”, “you’re doing it!”,
“surrender”.

Nat arrived and I remember thinking, wow we’re finally doing this! I checked to see if I could get into the
birth pool and it was absolute heaven - warm and comforting. The contractions were getting stronger and
horses breath wasn’t cutting it anymore so I turned to squeezing a birth comb. Each contraction I tried to
surrender to the pain, knowing that it had a purpose. I laboured like this for another hour.
During the preparation for this birth I’d reflected on my first birth and realised that I didn’t remember
getting the urge to push until the last minutes of a 24 hour labour. We’d talked about this during my
pregnancy and I’d been worried that it might happen again, so when I got the urge to push just before
11pm I said to Nat, “I think I’m pushing!”. I went deeper into the pain and could literally feel my body
opening up and the baby moving out. My moans were loud, deep and primal. (I found out later that my
lovely elderly neighbour could hear me and he turned to his partner and said “here we go, we’re on!”).
As I felt the baby shift further down, I kept thinking about a remark I’d made to Nat earlier in the
pregnancy. During one of our appointments, Nat had felt my belly and confirmed that the baby’s head was
engaged and very low down. I made the joke that it felt like the baby’s head was only 5cm away from my
vagina opening. So during each contraction, as I felt the baby move, I was imagining that the baby’s head
only had to move 5cm. Although anatomically incorrect (haha), I hung onto this and it helped immensely in
the moments that it felt too hard.

At 11pm, my second midwife, Sunny, arrive as did my mum. My mum was there to get into bed with Stevie
in case she woke up. Up to this point, my contractions had been regular and consistent, but during this

moment they seemed to miss a beat and the next contraction didn’t come straight away. I started to worry
that maybe this was only just the start of labour and that I’d got it wrong. I thought, if this is just the
beginning, then I can’t keep doing this! I said this out loud to Nat through tears. But then the next few
contractions came and they were big. I felt a big pop as I was bearing down and realised it was my water
breaking. The intensity went up another notch and I instinctually knew the baby was close.
As I got closer and closer to crowning (something that I really feared in my first birth), Nat reminded me to
do whatever I needed to do, but if I could, to really control the baby’s head coming out. I felt a wave of
calm come over me, my mind came into sharp focus and I felt like I had full control over my body. I thought
to myself, this is the moment that counts! I stopped making noise during the next few contractions and
instead started taking long, controlled breaths. I really didn’t want to tear and so I pictured my vagina
opening and softening to allow baby’s head to slide through.
I had another big contraction and the baby was out although I didn’t completely understand how far she’d
come out. Nat used a torch and shone it into the birth pool so I could see. I looked down and my baby was
just lying in the water, half out. She had come out with a nuchal hand up by her face. It was all such a
beautiful shock and I remember feeling no pain at all. I asked if I should pull the baby up or wait until the
next contraction. So I balanced in a squat quietly having my mind blown, waiting for the next contraction. I
felt the baby kicking inside me as the last contraction came at 11:40pm. I reached down, picked her up and
lent back on the birth pool as I pulled her up onto my chest. It was so surreal and I couldn’t believe that I’d
done it. Sam was in tears and I couldn’t believe it was over and she was finally here.
After a little bit of time in the pool, Nat and Sunny helped me out and set me up on the beanbag. I was
shivering, not necessarily from being cold, but more likely from the adrenaline of just having given birth. I
was wrapped in towels and got comfortable on the beanbag with a heat pack. They put the baby on my
chest for some skin to skin, and after a little while, she threw herself onto my boob and latched as we
waited for my placenta. While we waited I had a cup of tea and a bickie (probably the best cuppa of my
life!).
I had a physiological third stage of labour and after a couple of contractions, the placenta was out. Once
the cord had completely drained, Sam did the honours of cutting it. Nat inspected my perineum and apart
from a small inside cut (possibly from the nuchal hand) it was intact! This was such a relief after the third
degree tear from my first birth.
As I laid on my lounge room floor having just birthed my baby at home in under six hours, surrounded only
by my midwives and my husband, with my toddler sleeping soundly upstairs, I said to Nat, this was
everything I had envisaged, but better. Our baby girl Banksi, was here.