I went into labour naturally with my first, waited for the contractions to become closer together, which seemed to happen suddenly after hours of being occasional. We went off to the hospital by which time I was so far dilated that I went straight into the labour ward. Spent the next few hours alternately walking around and kneeling with my back to Ted so he could rub it..the only thing that helped. At some point when was upright my waters broke and were slightly brown-tinged so they began to watch more alertly. Because I'd said I wanted a natural birth they put off as long as possible doing a section. By the time I got into the stage of labour where the baby is trying to push through the cervix It was absolute agony. It appeared that his head was too big to pass through. They decided that he was becoming distressed and that they must perform a section but that I could have an epidural. I agreed to that and signed the paper though my hand was shaking so much it looked nothing like my signature anyway. By this time I'd gone mostly animal and wasn't very aware of much outside my body. I screamed the place down when they tried to put a catheter in.

They gave me the epidural, waited as long as they could then ran the scalpel across my tummy...which I felt. There was no choice then and they had to go for the general anaesthetic. The one thing that stands out vividly is the anaesthetist saying "Just a little prick" and me thinking "They don't really say that!! I must be dreaming". I wanted to laugh uproariously but couldn't.

Next thing I knew was the nurse waking me up and saying that I had a little boy and that Daddy had had a hold and a bit of a cry. Yes, I think I felt perhaps more cheated than jealous, but the same as you guys really. The next thing was Ted telling me that he had rung my parents and that my father (who wanted a granddaughter) had said "You'll have to do better next time". "NEXT TIME!!!!!" I bellowed.

Richard had to go into SCBU which, at that time was, stupidly, quite a long way from the ward. Since I was absolutely determined to breast feed, I kept making the walk to the Unit to feed him. They were all amazed that I managed it immediately after the Caesarian. I did have to give in and be pushed in a chair a couple of times and I felt like such a wimp.

Love Lynne