"Our gorgeous little girl, Scarlett Merryn was born on Thursday, July 21st at 5.45 am weighing 7lb 3oz.

My story began the Sunday before when light, but frequent contractions began. I sat on the ball and did the ironing, in an attempt to get organised, as I thought that Scarlett, who was due on the 22nd, was going to make an early arrival! The pain at this stage was minimal, but I still found that rotating whilst on the ball and doing simple breathing techniques such as temple breath and focusing on a longer out breath really comforting.

By Monday night, the contractions were very erratic coming anything between 3 minutes and 12 minutes apart, and by now the pain was much more intense, but Mike kept reminding me to breathe slowly, proving he did pay attention during the birthing partner class! After a trip to Arrowe Park I was sent home with pain killers.

A similar pattern followed on Tuesday, and by now the only real comfort I found was Mike massaging and applying pressure to my lower back like we'd learnt in class. Another trip to Arrowe and home again! By Wednesday, after no sleep since Saturday , I was exhausted, but the contractions were not speeding up. Another visit to Arrowe, but this time they kept me in at last as I was 4cm dilated. The next few hours were helped by gas and air, massage, dancing (where did that energy come from??!), bouncing on the ball and focusing on breathing, and this was all actually quite a pleasurable experience. Unfortunately though, my contractions failed to speed up sufficiently, so I was then given a drip to speed things up and diamorphine for the pain.

Scarlett eventually arrived, and the bit I had been dreading, (the big push!) was the easiest bit, although I think it helped having a small element of understanding how to isolate which bit to push which came from the exercises we'd done in class!

All in all, it wasn't the dream labour and birth I'd hoped for, but everyone is fine, and I dread to think how I might have coped had I not had the experiences of your classes during my pregnancy. Many thanks! Best of luck to all the other Mums to be, and I look forward to getting Dad on duty so I can get back to some general classes!"