Our beautiful daughter Ava was born on Monday, weighing 9lb 6oz, 56cm long. At the time I was 41 weeks plus 4 days pregnant and labour was induced. I was happy to carry for longer if all was well, however my waters partially broke three days prior and the risk of infection was too great to continue. We had been attending the hospital every day for monitoring. When we arrived at the hospital I felt very nervous, almost like an outlaw handing myself over to the police. It was not what I had ...

On Wednesday at 3.30pm the mucous plug came away and by 5.30pm surges began coming on every 10-15mins. They were lasting about 1 - 1.5 minutes and were quite sharp. I used breathing to get through each one and we continued to go about what we were doing. The surges continued and began to get closer together and more intense. By 10pm they were around 5 minutes apart. Our Doula Emma arrived at this time and assisted Matt in talking me through each surge as I rested on the bed. We decided to ...