A dad's view of birth

When we got back, we went straight into the delivery suite. There was the birthing pool in all its virginal glory. Gail was walking around and just whimpering occasionally and I was rubbing various places on demand and being squeezed without any holding back (ouch). Basically, I felt like a tool. But it was brilliant.

Into the pool
Gail got in the pool. It was all calm and natural, and she seemed to be calm again. There was a learning curve for all of us and we had fun keeping the right temperature in the pool. This was made even more difficult when the thermometer escaped down the plughole when I was letting some water out so we could top up with hot.

Then what seemed like minutes later, there was a show. Things were going well, Gail seemed to be quiet, she never shouted once, just a couple of whimpers and an 'Oh my God' and the waters popped. 'Wey hey,' I thought.

Gail is my hero
I was still holding on to her and stroking her, when Susan said, 'There's the head'. I couldn't believe it, there are all these ladies shouting the house down all over the place and my wife is saying 'Oh my God', followed by a little whimper. Then Jason popped out and swam/floated to the surface. I was amazed. She had no pain relief whatsoever and our son was born so quietly and calmly, it was amazing. Gail is my hero, I was so proud of her.

I would just like to say a big thank you to both midwives, Susan and Julia, who did an excellent job. The first water baby delivered in the Milton Keynes General birthing pool, Jason Ian Leslie Ashley was born at 6:14pm on 18th January 2002 and weighed 9lb 11oz.

Three hours later, after feeding Jason three times, Gail got up and walked to the bathroom and had a bath. I can't believe we were home at 10:30pm. It seemed like we'd just popped out and got a baby. She and Jason have been getting on fab ever since. Although I am making sure that she does as little as possible.