I gave birth to her at 38 weeks and 4 days after going into labour naturally. 

My contractions started at around 12.50am early hours of the morning and were painful but not very regular. By 4.30am they were 3 minutes apart but slowed down and became less frequent after ringing my maternity unit, although they still were extremely intense and consistently long. By 8am I couldn't bare it any longer and ended up going down to maternity unit and was examined to find I was only 3cm dilated. I was put on a ward where my contractions became extremely painful and more regular and extremely frequent and they were off the scales on the monitor. 12 I had a bath but ended up climbing the walls And screaming in pain. I sat on the toilet and began to push, shouting at the midwives as they were telling me I didn't need to when I knew I did. They managed to get me into a delivery room to then once again check how many cm I had dilated for the second time, only to find I had actually dilated a further 5cm in only 4 hours! 

I screamed and begged for an epidural and they tried to get a cannula in my arm but I couldn't stop myself from just laying on the bed and screaming that I was going to push. I began pushing uncontrollably and within four pushes my daughter was born! Once born she was put straight on my belly where my mother cut the cord and she was then passed to her daddy whilst I sucked on gas and air during the stitches. 

I was in labor for a total of 4 hours and 37 minutes and I had absolutely no pain relief until after my baby was finally born. All I can say is trust your body and trust that it knows exactly what is doing and trust in your own instincts. Don't let a midwife tell you your not pushing if you are or if you are ready to! 

My baby girl was almost born on the toilet before they finally got me to a delivery room! 

She weighed a beautiful 7lbs and is doing really well. She had her first feed straight after birth and has been feeding lovely ever since as well as having two poops and several wees. 

I had 5 stitches internally and also have severely bruised my coccyx bone due to pretty severe back labor and pushing intensity but however apart from that and being sore I'm doing nothing really well. 

It was possibly the most painful thing I have ever had to go through however I would do it over again in a minute for her. She was and is so worth all of that pain! 

💕💕