“I have a strong public health background so I was happy to do shared care with my GP and birth in the public hospital. But then I discovered that in public hospitals if your birth goes well you’re discharged after 24 hours. All our family lives away and it was covid and I knew I wanted support in the first few days of postpartum, so that’s why I chose private hospital care. I chose a female obstetrician and I always saw the same midwives at each appointment.

“I was a little concerned about how well I felt in pregnancy but I continued staying active and did a workout via an app that my sister, who is a women’s health physiologist, recommended. It’s called Move Your Bump. Ines was due at the end of June and I decided to start maternity leave four weeks before her due date. A week before I finished work I had a huge contraction in the night and it was really painful. The next night I felt another one and Ines was moving differently; like a fluttering. I called the hospital and they encouraged me to come in and they reassured me that everything was fine.

“The next night it happened again but then the contractions kept coming and Ines was born that day. As the day went on, they got more frequent but they didn’t get more painful. But they were only always fifteen minutes apart – they never got closer than that. At about 5pm the contractions started getting more painful, beforehand they just felt like uncomfortable period pains. My waters broke everywhere and from that moment the pan went from mild to intense.

“We called the hospital and went there straight away and I was not calm at all; I was hot, loud, and just didn’t know how to navigate the pain. I used the gas and that really helped to regulate my breathing and the obstetrician came and sat with me and I asked if I could have an epidural. I remember the pity in my her eyes and that’s when she told me that my baby was almost here and she just stayed with me and explained exactly what was happening in my body which helped me visualise exactly where my baby was. She encouraged me to push and she was motioning with her hands what my baby was doing – moving down, moving back up, twisting slightly. It was just so incredibly helpful. She asked if I wanted to touch Ines’ head and it was such a weird sensation; I remember it vividly. She was totally blue at first but no one was nervous. She came to me immediately for skin to skin.

“The first two weeks of breastfeeding were worse than labour. She was always on the breast and my nipples didn’t really have a chance to heal. Being away from my mum and my sister was so hard; it was such a contrast to the joy of my pregnancy. I was so emotional; I couldn’t do anything without crying. I ended up working with a lactation consultant and after a two hour appointment, everything was fine. She encouraged me to lean back, take my bra off and let Ines find my nipple. It seemed like such commonsense. Up till then, all the midwives at the hospital were showing me all these different techniques.But the lactation consultant was so relaxed and positive, she never made me feel like I was doing it wrong, she really supported us and we found a position that was so comfortable. Ines had a full feed and a long nap so it changed everything; she was feeding and sleeping more regularly which also gave my nipples time to heal.

“Ines was 18-months-old when I fell pregnant with Louis. It was unexpected and it took me a few weeks to really accept it. I had just gone back to work and it was nice to have my body back…and I just wanted a bit more time to spend on my career before another baby. But of course, I wouldn’t change it for the world now. I went to the same obstetric practice, I stayed active as much as I could but I got covid twice. It was much more exhausting.

“My parents arrived from Canada on the Friday night and on the Sunday morning I started having contractions. Every fifteen minutes I’d get a really painful contraction. I called the hospital and explained how quick my first birth had been so they encouraged me to come in. We got to the hospital about 12:15pm and we weren’t stressed at all. I was 6cm and as soon as the midwife finished checking me, I got off the bed and stood next to it, leaning over the bed that they had raised.

“When it was time to push I kneeled on the bed. I couldn’t believe how quick it was happening. He was born encaul and I heard the splash of it breaking after birth. I picked him up and put him on my chest and it was just so amazing. It felt so primal it was really beautiful. It was a rush of oxytocin and dopamine…I couldn’t believe what had just happened.”