Chloe's birth story

"Wake up."

No response.

"Wake up, I think my waters have broken. I think it's starting"

That gets his attention. It's nearly midnight, and two weeks before my due date. This isn't supposed to happen yet. Not with a first baby, that's what everyone told me.

I'm shaking with adrenaline, fear and excitement. I have a bath towel shoved between my legs trying to absorb the gush of salty water.

We agree this is definitely my waters breaking and decide to sleep until something else happens. No point tiring ourselves out before the hard part.

Five minutes later I feel a pain across my belly and let out an involuntary groan. A contraction? Then another. Sleep is not an option.

Instead we look at the clock. Three sets of contractions at five minutes apart. Then it's three minutes.

"Right, I'm calling Mary," but before he gets to the phone I'm on my knees on the floor about to vomit. He runs for a bucket.

I'm scared now. My body is in the grip of something I cannot control. And surely this is all happening too fast?

Mary's on the phone to Teddy. They are discussing the birthing pool. It's with another couple whose due date is before ours. They have found a solution but I'm hazy about the detail. It's hard to listen and deal with a contraction at the same time.

Now Mary is talking to me, reassuring words - it's all normal, not to worry, try to relax, maybe a bath. She'll be over later, call her if we need to.

I latch onto the idea of a bath. The next minute I'm in it. Teddy has placed candles round the side and dimmed the lights. It's not easy getting in, I almost knock a candle over. As soon as I'm in the warn water though I feel calmer.

I've lost all sense of time. While I'm in the bath a birthing pool has been delivered by Nicky, another midwife on her way back from Kings. She comes in to the bathroom to find me mid-contraction. I'm making a sound I never knew I could make, it's not a scream, more of a roar.

"Hmm, are your contractions quite intense Chloe?" I let out a breathless "yes".

Nicky decides to examine me and finds I'm 8 cm dilated. "I'm phoning Mary now Chloe, ok? I'll stay with you till she gets here." I'm relieved, at least I know the contractions can't get much worse.

Suddenly there's lots of activity. Teddy is assembling the pool in the living room and filling it. Nicky is writing her notes. Mary arrives. Nicky leaves. Mary listens for the baby's heart beat. She says I'm doing really well. She gives me a glass of water which I drink with a straw. Zoe, my second midwife, arrives.

After nearly three hours in the bath, I'm getting irritated with the lack of space, the temperature of the water, the sound of running water. Small details annoy me, I snap instructions at Teddy. I don't have the patience to ask politely for things.

At last Mary says the pool is full enough and I move, with some difficulty, into the living room. Forty-five minutes later our son is born.

From start to finish it had taken five hours. I hadn't noticed the different stages of labour, it all happened too quickly. And when I got into the pool things had seemed to speed up even more. I liked the deep water, the fact I could move freely and lean on the side.

There was only one point when I felt I couldn't cope. Just before the head emerged I realised I hadn't asked for any pain relief and my body felt like it would rip open. But that didn't last long and then I felt the urge to push.

Mary told me to hold on, to breathe out. I tried that for a few minutes and then couldn't wait any longer. This baby was in a hurry to see the world.

I was surprised by the wait between the head and the rest of the body coming out. It seemed like an eternity but was probably was just a few seconds. Mary and Teddy were behind me ready to catch him and pass him between my legs so I could hold him.

He came out of the water with his mouth firmly closed and his dark eyes staring angrily at me. An agonising few seconds as we waited for his first scream. I can't describe that moment - the relief, pride and amazement at having done it was overwhelming.

Mary helped Teddy cut the cord while Zoe acted as official photographer. Teddy held him while I gave birth to the placenta. We must have been cleaned up at some point, the water in the pool was filthy. But I don't remember any of that. I just remember the three of us cuddled up in bed, our cats lurking at the door and Mary and Zoe quietly packing up in the living room. It felt natural and right to be at home. Now I can't imagine having done it any other way.