Never done an announcement thread before!
My birth story:
My first son was born prematurely in 2006 at 31w +5 after a 2 hour labour. He was in special care for 3 weeks and is registered disabled, so my second pregnancy was understandably a bit fraught. DS2 managed to stay put until 37w +4.....
I woke up in the early hours of 21 Feb feeling a bit odd, with 2-3 contractions. Got up and had a cup of tea but nothing came of it. Got up with my mum at 8.30 and my waters went as I was sitting on my son's bed. I'd planned a homebirth as DS1 was so quick, so called the MWs (telling them I have quick labours) and set the living room up. I sat chatting with mum, using a wheat pack to deal with occasional cramps and playing with DS1 who was watching CBeebies.
It got to 10:30 and no MWs, I got my husband up (he works nights) and we called a friend to take DS1 out for a bit. DH helped me breathe through the contractions, and I spent most of them on my knees with my head on the sofa! MW1 finally turned up, only to moan that she couldn't park and that she was only dropping bags off. By 11:00 I was 2cm dilated and had been sick. MW2 turned up and they largely ignored us in favour of rearranging appointments.
By 12:00 I was struggling with the pain and was fairly sure I was in transition. Both MWs refused to examine me again, and as I'm hypoglycaemic I insisted on a hospital transfer, as lost all confidence in the MWs, who had both forgotten the gas and air and just sat and watched me having hypo attacks (going white, blue lips etc).
The ambulance arrived at about 12.15 and I had to make the 5 min journey on my knees as I couldn't sit any more. Had 3 contractions on the journey and another 4 in the delivery waiting room. Was delighted when my new MW arrived and she was the one who booked me in, and who I really like. Had 2 more contractions on the way to the delivery room, arrived at 12.30, got up on the bed and immediately wanted to push.
DS2 (Gabriel William Thomas) was born at 12.39 with no pain relief (although I did have gas and air for the 4 stitches). My MW was furious with the attitude of the two community MWs and stalked off to give them an earful while I gave Gabriel has first BF. Gabriel and I were kept in overnight to make sure our blood sugars recovered and were discharged the next day. All in all it was a positive birth but I will be bringing up the community MWs with the PCT as it could have been much more serious if they had a first-time mum or I had not had my DH and mum with me.