I had been having contractions on and off for a couple of weeks. The day after EDD I went for a long walk and climb [we live in the middle of lots of rocky hills] in the afternoon like I usually did, came home and prepared the evening meal and enjoyed it and was feeling contractions all the way through.

By the time we finished I told everyone that it felt like the babe could be born sometime during the night and could everyone please get their jobs done and get themselves organised for bed and not to panic if they heard noise and activity during the night. This was about 7:30 pm.

I started collecting the things I wanted in the bedroom; buckets, dishes, faceclothes, towels and just tidying up around the place. By about 8pm the contractions were so strong and close [ I wasn't into timing or checking dilation] I made a 'nest' on my bedroom floor at the end of my bed then went outside and walked around quite aggressively.


One of the reasons I didn't want to go to a hospital was because I feel a need to be alone, outdoors and with lots of space to stride while in labour. I'd had too many labours confined to a room with people trying to talk to me and get me to move into uncomfortable positions.

By 8:30pm I was on the verandah [it's where my Michael and I hang out a lot, beautiful view and we have a few bits of comfortable furniture there] I paced up and down and had become quite teary. My "I can" affirmations had become "I think I can" and "I hope I can". I felt a need to go and check my 'nest' I was feeling very strange.
I went in and knelt down and then had the scariest part of all, I realised I needed to empty my bowels and there was no way I could get up and walk all the way back to the toilet which is outside.

I grabbed a bucket and unhappily used that and covered it with a towel. I asked my Michael to come in and wash me as I wasn't capable. He went back outside and I put my hand between my legs and felt the top of the head. I had actually planned to deliver/catch babe on my own but I got such a surprise I was expecting to be in labour for hours longer.

I called out again to Michael to come and have a look and see if it really was the head, he came in and as he got behind me [I was leaning on the bed sort of squatting] a gush of water went all over him [I'd always had my waters broken by midwives during labour] and Seamus came out with it. I didn't push at all, Michael had a difficult time trying to hold on to Seamus he wasn't expecting him, Michael later told me that Seamus spat out lots of fluid as he slid out.

It was only just after 9pm. I was so surprised, Seamus was crying and I tried to figure out where the cord was and how to maneveure myself into a position where I could easily hold and try and feed him and be able to birth the placenta. I sat on a bowl, tried to b/feed him, the children all had woken and come in for a look so they sat on my nest with us and we just talked and admired our new little family member.

I tried pushing to get the placenta out but it wouldn't so I just relaxed and it popped out a few mins later. My Michael phoned some friends who arrived at about 11pm we cut the cord and had rock cakes and dandelion tea. I had a shower, threw the sheets, towels etc I wanted to keep in the wash, threw the others out and we all went to bed.

Orlenna: "The last photo is just a wider view of Seamus in the first few mins so you can see the enviroment he was born in, the cord leading to the placenta and
my messy bedroom."