Our midwife took us to a room and said "Oh yes this baby's in a hurry".....it sounds ridiculous but I then knew I was in labour and everything clicked into place!

Liz and Baby Ava

At 2am I got up to go to the loo then just as I was getting back into bed I felt a pop and a click and a small amount of liquid came out. As I'd just been to the loo it didn't seem likely that it was wee so I went back to the toilet. There was some rose coloured liquid. I explained what had happened to Nick.

As I was 36 weeks and 4 days he thought it best to call the labour ward at Salisbury Hospital. The midwife advised us to come in, which we did. We were then monitored I was having some contractions, Ava's heart rate was fine and I was 2cm dilated so the midwife said to go home have a bath and relax.......this was at 6am.

Almost as soon as we left the ward the contractions became stronger. Its difficult to describe but because we'd had a false alarm the week before and my waters hadn't broken I was sure that I wasn't in labour. This made it quite difficult to manage the contractions. However, following instructions seemed like a good idea so we went home I had a 5 minute bath then tried to get back into bed and relax......I couldn't. The most comfortable place was on the toilet or kneeling over the bath. Time went very strangely. However, I know, 'cause Nick told me, that by 8am the contractions were coming every 2 minutes and lasting a minute. At this point Nick called the hospital and we went back in.

Its 2 miles to the hospital on a very quick back road, I had 5 contractions on the way there and 2 waiting to be let into the ward. Our midwife took us to a room and said "Oh yes this baby's in a hurry".....it sounds ridiculous but I then knew I was in labour and everything clicked into place. I used the gas and air until my waters broke. Nick helped me with my breathing, passed me water and kept telling me to relax my jaw. This was something I must have passed onto him from Rosa's class. I don't know if I consciously relaxed my jaw or if it was the calm memories of the classes but it definately helped.

After the transition phase I felt more in control and focussed. Ava kicked on her way out so I had a lovely image of her swimming. After 20 minutes of pushing she was born at 10.43 weighing 6lb 3oz. She lay on my stomach for about 30 minutes until her umbilical cord stopped pulsing it was then clamped and Nick cut it. It took another 30 minutes for the placenta to be delivered. It was into a bed pan over the toilet!!!  Whilst this was happening our midwife had told Nick to take his top off so Ava was having more skin to skin time with her Dad.

It was amazing.