“Sean and I met in April 2020 and in November that year we decided that we’d start trying in 2021. It took us four months to conceive Remy; I’d gone off birth control and was doing acupuncture and I was thrilled and relieved when I got a positive test because I thought it was going to be hard.

“I’d been recommended an obstetrician in Melbourne – Dr Briohny Hutchinson – and she suggested the embrace programme where I was cared for by a team of midwives and her. But that changed when I was classed high-risk halfway through my pregnancy.

“Everything had been going well for 20 weeks when they looked at my cervix and told me that it was 14mm and a week later it was 4mm. Essentially they were telling me that my body was preparing to go into labour. They couldn’t give me a reason why, it’s called cervical incompetence or insufficiency.

“I was overwhelmed and terrified. I was moved to a hospital room and they wouldn’t even let me walk to the bathroom. There were a few treatment options; a cervical stitch, a pessary and bedrest. I was on strict bedrest for 10 weeks after the stitch was put in. I had a general anesthetic and the operation took about an hour and then I stayed in hospital overnight.

“I got to 28 weeks which was a huge relief and then I started to walk around the block at 30 weeks. My OB reassured me that I could do gentle exercise so I returned to pilates and definitely felt better about the strength and fitness of my body in preparation for birth.

“The stitch was taken out at 36+6 and it was uncomfortable; I’d describe it as a really, really bad pap smear. Once they took it out I had to stay at the hospital because it’s common to go straight into labour but that didn’t happen to me; I was pregnant for another week.

“I chose to be induced; they put the gel in and by the next morning I was in labour so I went into hospital with contractions. I got there about 7am and by that stage I couldn’t walk so they got a wheelchair and they did a vaginal examination and I was about 2-3cm. They broke my waters and I just couldn’t believe how much water there was. At about 9:30am I got an epidural.

“I was really confident in getting an epidural; why drive a manual car when you can drive an automatic? I’d rather just make things easier for myself and I really trusted the hospital and medicine to get me through.

“For the next three hours, Sean and the midwife and I were just chatting. It was like we were having lunch together. At about 12:30pm I was fully dilated and the epidural started to wear off so I could feel some of the contraction pain and pressure which was good because I knew when to push.

“I could feel it when I was having a contraction. I was really trying to get in the right headspace when I was pushing and I was leaning on the coaching of my OB and the midwives. Remy’s heart rate wasn’t recovering between contractions so my OB said we’d have to use the vacuum. I know some people would try to avoid it but my doctor felt it was needed and I was okay with that. I birthed him at 2:20pm and he came straight to my chest. It was quite overwhelming, I was in shock.

“About an hour after birth he latched and the midwives commented on his good latch. The next few days in hospital were a rollercoaster. We had different midwives with different methods which was helpful but also something else to navigate. I preemptively had all the tools at my disposal, including silverettes which were a lifesaver.”