October Birth Story

He was unsure about coming home as there had been a few false alarms but, by the time he arrived, I was in agony. He suggested that I phone the hospital and the midwife recommended a warm bath for at least an hour. This would either make the contractions closer together or stop them completely. I stayed submerged for an hour and a half and the contractions started coming every four to five minutes. At lunchtime we phoned the hospital again and they said I should go in to be examined.

I was hooked up to a machine to measure the contractions and a midwife gave me an internal examination. When she told me I was only 1cm dilated, I began to worry - the pains were very bad and close together and paracetamol wasn't making any difference. The midwife said that I could stay in if I wanted to but I would have to stay on a ward, so we decided to go home.

By 10pm I was finding it really hard to cope so we phoned the hospital again to say we were coming in. I was examined again and told that I was still only 1cm dilated. I burst into tears as they said that until I was 3cm they couldn't give me any pain relief apart from paracetamol. Again we were advised to go home and come back when the pains were closer together.

We tried to get a bit of sleep but because my contractions were only five minutes apart it was impossible.

At 2am on 9th August I decided to have a bath to try and relax. It didn't help at all, so I went downstairs and tried to read to take my mind off the pain. At 3.30am I woke my husband as I really couldn't bear it any more and I was exhausted. We phoned the hospital to say that we were coming back.