The story of Molly Jade entrance to the world began at dinner with my parents who were here from northern NSW, Wednesday 14th October 2009.

Our plan was a water birth at home.  For this, we had Helen Brown & Mal Morieson who looked after us through the entire pregnancy.  This in itself helped the pregnancy be smooth and stress free- the continuity of care and the personal care, as well as them coming to visit us in our home each time to see us in our environment and where we planned on having our baby just added to the natural way we hoped things would go.

So I started having slight contractions at dinner with my Mum & Dad - however said nothing to them as David (my husband) was coaching tennis at the time & he was the first person I wanted to share that information with.   We got home about 7.30pm and were on the lounge watching TV- contracting and pretending like nothing was happening.  Dave got home about 9.30-10pm, Mum & Dad went to bed shortly after, and then I told Dave- he remained quite poker faced, but his eyes said a lot more!!  Anyway, we went to bed at 11pm and by that stage I was having fairly regular contractions- 3-5mins apart and lasting 30seconds to a minute- but I wanted to let my midwives sleep so I didn't call- instead I sent Helen a text message saying I was in pre-labour & I would call her in the morning!!

So the contractions remained that regular all night long- pretty much 3 minutes apart and lasting a minute- yes I was definitely in labour!! But I also let Dave sleep as much as possible- thinking I'm only in pre-labour, this could go on for a while etc etc.  At about 3am I did ask Dave to go out and make sure the pool had enough air in it, and to cover the window where the pool was as I'm pretty sure it is going to happen soon-ish.  Anyway, I had a little bit of respite around 5am, not that that lasted too long (perhaps transition?).  All this time I was in bed by the way!  Got up went to the bathroom a couple of times and by 8am Dave was in the bathroom with me- he was absolutely amazing.   I'm like, better call Helen; this baby wants to come out. 

 My mum checked in on me a couple of times around this point too, but I had to ask her to leave as I didn't want her seeing me in that state.  So Dave put her and Dad in charge of filling the pool & Dave spoke to Helen a couple of times, as did I, but I wasn't in any state to speak much by this point!  Helen was on her way, but it was peak hour traffic on a rainy Thursday morning in Melbourne- so she got stuck on the freeway, and of course Bell St was gridlocked!! 

 Anyway, Helen could tell I was pushing and she was concerned my body wasn't ready for pushing, so told Dave he had to get me to focus on my breathing and stop pushing.  I made it off the bathroom floor, back into bed & Dave was the most amazing, calm breathing coach- he was absolutely fantastic.  Anyway, I did manage to breathe pretty well, but I assure you, when you have a strong urge to push a baby's head out, that's what you have to do, and that's what I did!  I said to Dave, "this baby needs to come out.  The head is out!"  Dave jumped from my head to Molly's head- had Helen on loud speaker.  She, very calmly, asked a couple of questions about colouring and the cord, then said that on my next contraction to pull the baby out from under the armpits & that's exactly what happened!!  Dave and I became extremely proud parents at 9.30am!!!

It was quite a while before we discovered she was a she- that was so unimportant- she was here, she was breathing, she was crying & then she was feeding.  All is amazing!!  And Helen arrived about 15 minutes later!!!! Followed closely by the placenta and then Mal!
So since Thursday 15th October our lives are very complete & things are going extremely well.  The daily post-natal visits from Helen & Mal were wonderful, and have made breastfeeding stress free.  Getting the same information from the same person has been invaluable & the most helpful.
Even though Helen & Mal weren't with us in person for Molly's birth, there is no way we could have done it without them.  The support, knowledge, and guidance they provided us with throughout the entire pregnancy meant that we were calm, and we had complete faith in each other and both wanted the most natural child birth possible.  I also had complete faith in my body & my baby & I knew that she would initiate labour when she was ready.  Had we gone through the medical system, Molly would have been forced into the world five days earlier, simply because my "due date" was October 1st. 
Thank you Helen & Mal and all that you stand for & shared with us.  May Midwives Naturally remain in practise, & may Australian women have a choice to give birth naturally in the environment she chooses!