It has been two weeks since the birth of my beautiful baby girl and this is how it all went down.

My due date was the 31st of January and the morning of the 31st I got out of bed and liquid dripped down my leg onto the floor (about a cup worth). I called the hospital who said to come in and they will examine me. They hooked me up to a machine which showed I was having fairly consistent contractions - however I couldn't feel them at this stage. They were about 5 minutes apart. This is when I had my first internal examination - I had never been checked during my pregnancy since my baby was up so high. The nurse could not reach my cervix while checking me. She told me I am in pre labour and to come in later if I have strong consistent contractions. My contractions became painful and about 4 mins apart by around 4pm on the 31st. We went into the hospital again. A midwife checked my cervix this time. Again she couldn't reach it and said it was tilted backwards. She told me that when a woman is in 'actual labor' the cervix will be tilted forward. I let her know that my sister had just given birth and her cervix never tilted forward. She dismissed my claim - assured me I was wrong and that the cervix during labor will definitely tilt forward. She sent me home in 'pre-labor' again. I had very strong contractions by the time I had dinner that night - 3 minutes apart and couldn't talk through them. I didn't want to go back so soon since I apparently hadn't started labor yet! I waited until 1am the next morning (unable to sleep of course). My contractions were just less than 3 minutes apart at this stage and increasingly painful. I went to the hospital for the third time. They hooked me up to the monitor and my contractions were constant and off the charts. A midwife did an internal exam. She could not feel if my cervix was dialated because it was still tilted back. She then told me again that I am just in pre-labour and gave me some painkillers and sleeping pills so I could go home and sleep it off. Even with all the medication I could fall asleep between contractions but would wake every few minutes from the pain. At 6am my contractions were two minutes apart. I decided to have a warm bath for the pain. In the bath they increased in pain and were now every 1 and a half minutes. I told my husband to take me to the hospital and that we cannot be sent home again or I will have this baby at home! We got to the hospital, a midwife checked my cervix. Again could not feel if I was dialated because of the tilt and told me it was pre-labor. She told me I could go home and wait for real labour or lay in a hospital room and they would give me some pethadine. I said yes to the room and pethadine. About an hour later I felt the need to push. The midwife checked me.. "Oh, your a bit further along than we thought.. I can feel her head. It's time to push!"