This is the story of the safe arrival of Frank, who was born on 5 November 2017 at 12:04 AM. He was a little bit early (originally due on 25 November) and weighed in at 2.558 kg.

"The hospital was a little bit worried about his growth at our last few checkups; which seemed to be slowing down and we had some abnormal readings for blood flow – so they suggested being induced around the 37-week mark.

I was quite anxious about this as I was not too keen to be induced. But after a few days digesting the information, I had the mind frame that we would still approach it from a Calmbirth perspective and keep to our birth plan for a natural birth as much as possible – with a few tweaks due to the induction. I had also worked with my doula in the days before to have an induction massage and learn a few techniques that might bring on a natural labour!

We went into the hospital on Saturday to have the balloon catheter put in, anticipating to be in overnight and have the drip on Sunday. When I saw the doctor late Saturday afternoon, she did an examination and found that I was already 3cm dilated! So that evening at around 6.30pm my waters were broken and the drip put in. Chris set up the room with dark lighting, music and aromatherapy. We had lots of comments from the midwives that they were loving the setup and soundtrack!

The contractions started slowly but did pick up the pace at around 8pm. I had hired a TENS machine which was my lifesaver, I think! I had quite strong contractions for the next couple of hours and managed these with breathing technique, the TENS machine and some serious relaxing in between. I also made quite a few noises in the stronger contractions – something I thought I would be very self-conscious about, but ended up doing very naturally!

I had a few moments of self-doubt but my partner and our doula, Fiona, were great motivating me on. I ended up needing the heart rate monitoring clip put on Frank's head, so the doctor also did an internal examination around 11pm and told me I was 10cm dilated! It was the information I needed to keep going and ended up delivering Frank just after midnight with no medical pain relief and no other interventions apart from the induction itself. I was pretty chuffed with this :)

Also, C. provided amazing support throughout the labour. I think the preparation with [About Birth] really helped us both in the lead-up because he knew what to look for and could anticipate how he could help."