I was told by a midwife at 30 weeks how unprepared I was and that I needed classes to educate myself despite weeks of appointments with barely any information provided and antenatal classes being cancelled due to COVID-19. Thankfully going into my birth I was lucky enough to have Tina, a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, to help us prepare ourselves for it.

Tina was brilliant, but more importantly the Lamaze principles and education about the birth process helped me so much. I decided I really wanted a natural birth with as little intervention as possible and did lots of reading to try and prepare myself mentally as well as I could.

Unfortunately my little man wasn't keen to come out and meet us so we ended up having to be induced 10 days later. I was nervous about having this intervention in my birth process but was eager to meet him. My waters were broken at 7 am and I asked to be given some time to try and labour on my own, which my midwife encouraged but the doctor told me I was delaying the inevitable and strongly advised I go on the drip straight away.

I decided to go outside and walk around with my husband for 1.5 hours, during this time I had regular contractions happening 15 minutes apart. We stopped for each, he supported me and helped me breathe through them. We went back up at 8.30 am and the midwife was impressed it had started but said it wasn't really happening fast enough and “I was there to have a baby” she recommended I start the drip, so we decided we would.

My contractions escalated really quickly, I was surprised at how intense the pain became. My husband held me through some of the contractions and I decided I needed to sit on my ball and then on the toilet to breathe through them.

My husband ran me a bath at about 10 am and I hopped in around 10.30 am - the water was a great relief. A minute into my bath, however, I got the urge to push. My midwives didn't think I could be ready to push after 1.5 hours and looking at how well I was handling the pain, I decided wanted them to check how dilated I was as the urge to push was too strong. I was 10 cm dilated with just a small lip remaining and asked where I wanted to continue to labour.

I was standing next to the bed leaning over it completely unaware that my baby was about to come out. I was in my zone, during this time pads and towels had been placed between my legs. On the next contraction, I pushed. I didn't realise it was time to meet my baby so soon, I was surprised and confused. I pushed and breathed through the crowning process and a couple of minutes later, he was out and here - my gorgeous Oliver was in my arms.

I'm so glad I took a Lamaze class to mentally prepared myself for birth and was prepared for the intensity of labour and birth. I honestly thought I had hours ahead of me and so much more to endure.

Thank you to Tina and Lamaze for helping me prepare confidently.

This birth story was provided by:

Tina Zissis - Doula & Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator

Website: www.littlehouseofbirth.com