My husband and I had hoped to let my body decide when it's ready for labour, as statistics we had found suggest that every intervention increases the risk of needing a c-section.

(obviously we hoped we would be lucky enough for that to be an option).

Due dates are not an exact science at the best of times, and in France they use a date one week later than we would here in the UK for the same baby.

We held off from any procedural interventions until the 14th day after the due date, and then started with a membrane sweep. However it wasn't possible to perform the sweep, so we tried again the next day and my cervix was now accessible. After 24 hours nothing was happening so a pessary was given which started my contractions.

Three hours later my waters were broken by the midwife (in the UK midwifes lead care unless you are deemed high risk) and our baby girl arrived 7 hours after.

I found it difficult to recover between contractions at first because they came two minutes apart all the way through from having the pessary and after the waters being broken I had a lot of discomfort. Birthing pools are amazing however, as once I moved to that I could float and recover between contractions and everything became so much easier. The result being the natural birth of our baby girl.

If you have the option, and are in a similar position to myself, then I hope you have access to a birthing pool. It wasn't something we were particularly interested in, but having used it I would thoroughly recommend it to ease your discomfort and allow you to recover between contractions.

All the best to you all, good luck with those babies!

K