As I embark on writing down my birthing story I stop and look down at the most precious and beautiful sight – my newborn baby girl.

The beginning seems a crazy place to start – to imagine all the steps that led to the ‘welcome to the world’ moment!

I envisioned a Homebirth to be calm, relaxed and empowering and it proved to be that and sooooo much more.

‘Breathe in inspiration and trust yourself, the answer is yes you can’

I was plodding along at 41 weeks + 1 day and feeling pretty large, fed up and the waiting game was no longer fun.

After a long long walk my waters started leaking and I thought it was time to meet my new little bundle of joy…then no contractions, no signs, no nothing! The next day, I went into the assessment ward to confirm the waters were leaking – yes they were! The next problem was my blood pressure decided to be high!!! At this moment I knew that they may admit me and my dreams of a Homebirth came crashing down around me.

Jodie (Surrey Hills Team midwife) was on site and worked with me and the team. I had some food, calmed myself down and did some breathing techniques – woohoo…my blood pressure came down and I was allowed to go home but the condition was if baby didn’t arrive tonight then induction was booked for 8:30am the next morning. No pressure!!!

Jodie gave me a ‘sweep’ for good luck (which I will never forget). Let’s just say she went for it!

I got home at about 4pm and very quickly started to get tightening’s and the intensity began increasing. I knew it felt different from the numerous ‘false starts’ I had already had and told my partner Adrian to start preparing the pool and get things ready.

I phoned Jodie at approximately 7pm to give her the heads up – she had already spent most of the day with me (so why not spend the evening too)!

It was about 9pm when my focus kicked in and the basic breath technique of a wave rising and falling were seeing me through the growing contractions inside me.

At around 11pm I found relief in the pool and WOW it felt good! I suddenly needed to push and began to channel my breathing to an ‘out’ breath.

Alice the second Midwife crept in and we were definitely in the next stage of labour.

I must admit the ‘brick wall’ hit and I lost my breathing and began to panic. Alice was the guiding voice who got me back on track for the most important last few pushes – I needed to control the delivery slowly and carefully.

I reached down and could feel the head of my baby crowning. I knew one last good push would mean the head was out and I would be one step closer to holding my baby.

The last push was everything it needed to be – I pushed down and released every bit of love and want into it!

The head was out and with the next wave the body followed. My baby got pushed through my legs and I picked it up out of the water at 12.20am. Adrian and I were absolutely overcome with emotion – I forgot to even look at what I had, a girl or a boy! It took a reminder from the midwives and then we confirmed the addition of a second little girl to complete our family.

I stayed holding her in the water with Adrian right there beside me – he was my rock and I promise he did regain feeling in his hand after all the clenching.

The cord drained to white and I knew that physically she was about to be separated from me. I took a moment to just ‘be’ before Adrian cut the cord. The placenta followed after and the process was over.

I laid on the sofa under the duvet with my little hefty squidge (9lb 2oz) and got the moment to just bond and take it all in.

As the pool was cleared and deflated I felt a strange sense of loss but then was overcome with excitement and joy. It was a very weird sensation!

I could not have envisioned a better labour and birth and the support of Adrian, Jodie and Alice was perfect.

Pregnancy, labour and baby is the process you go through but the experience can be magical if you trust in you and your body.

Our 5 year old little girl woke up to the most magical surprise in the morning. It cemented what was the perfect end to a

journey that was now about to take a different course and we are all super excited to see what the adventure brings.

As a tribute to the Homebirth team and the memory of our little girl being born at home she was named Elenie Hale ######-Hale Lodge being the name of our house.