Having struggled to get pregnant for a few years, I was lucky to end up having a really straightforward pregnancy. We initially thought we'd prefer for me to give birth in hospital because it was our first baby and we didn't know what to expect, however, we emerged from Anna's hypnobirthing course absolutely certain that a home birth was the right choice for us. Our midwife was supportive of this and we set about measuring spaces around our house where we might squeeze in a birth pool!

At 35 weeks I was sent for a growth scan as the midwife was concerned baby's growth rate had dropped. Baby's growth turned out to be fine, but the scan revealed she was breech. This meant potentially giving birth in hospital unless I could get baby to turn head down and so followed 2 weeks of moxibustion, pelvic tilts, chiropractor appointments, handstands in the swimming pool, a variety of crazy yoga poses and homeopathic remedies to get baby to turn, as well as listening to the specific hypnobirthing track for this purpose every night. We even went to hospital for an ECV (where they try and turn baby manually by applying pressure to my tummy). Baby stayed resolutely breech, so the doctor explained that we would need to book in for a c-section at 39 weeks. I said, 'What about vaginal breech delivery?' and everyone looked a bit shocked. The consultant explained that this was not normally done, but was possible if certain conditions were met, e.g. baby was the right size, I would have to go into spontaneous labour etc. They booked me in for another growth scan at 39 weeks accompanied by an appointment with a different consultant (who we'd heard may try to persuade us to have a c-section).

The 39 week growth scan suggested baby's growth rate had accelerated and that she was approx 9lbs. The consultant booked us in for a c-section for 3 days later (which I intended to cancel) and she basically refused to entertain the idea of a vaginal breech birth, saying that the baby could die if we chose that route. I said I just wanted to go into labour naturally, then I would be happy to have a c-section if that was the safest route. I just wanted baby to decide when it was the right time to be born but the consultant wouldn't hear of it. I cried a lot that evening, feeling totally torn about what to do.

I continued to research the risks of continuing down the vaginal birth path and I talked to supportive family members about our situation, and decided that the risk to baby and me was still extremely low, in spite of how the consultant had explained it to us, so I would wait for spontaneous labour after all. As it happened, I didn't actually get round to cancelling the c-section as I went into labour the day after this consultation.

I rang hospital triage at 2:30am because my mucus plug had gone and was very bloody, which I was a bit worried about. While I was on the phone to them, my waters broke so they said to come into hospital. I arrived with no contractions and no other signs of labour, so the midwife was going to send us to the Day Assessment Unit to wait til morning, but she decided to examine me as I was having regular waves of pain. We assumed these weren't contractions as they were very much bowel pains - the midwife explained it was just the lack of cushioning between baby and my bowel from my waters breaking. However, it turned out they were contractions after all as the midwife declared me 5cm dilated (This was about an hour after my waters had broken!)

She left the room for a few minutes and by the time she came back, things had changed. Her words were "Hmm, those noises sound very 'pushy'. We don't want a breech delivery on triage - let's go!". They wheeled me round to the delivery ward while I was on all 4s on the bed, making very loud pushing noises all the way down the hospital corridors.

In the delivery ward, the consultant who had made me cry the day before arrived to deliver the baby. I said, 'Oh dear, you didn't want us to do this, did you?'. She said something along the lines of, not really but here we are! I think she felt scared, but I didn't. I knew baby and I could do this and I was determined to give this birth everything I'd got. I laboured for an hour or so with a fair amount of freedom of movement, using my breath and hypnobirthing techniques to manage the pain, and eventually gas and air as well. I vomited a lot during labour and felt cold and shivery.

As baby got close to coming out, the doctor wanted me on my back with my legs up in case they needed to assist delivery of the head. I really didn't want to - it felt so uncomfortable on my back. I wanted gravity to help, but the doctor was very insistent, especially as growth scan earlier that week had come up as 'big'. As baby came out bum first, my husband was able to announce the sex before she was born. I was over the moon when I found out we were having a little girl. Then the real hard work began. The doctor made me actively push with my contractions while I was on my back with my legs in the air. She wouldn't let me make noises with it as she wanted all my energy going into the pushes. In the end, I had an episiotomy and forceps were used to deliver baby's head, as she wasn't coming out fast enough. This was definitely the most painful part of the labour! I wonder if the intervention would have been necessary had I been allowed to labour stood up, as I'd wanted to, but at the end of the day I was just grateful she'd been delivered safely.

They cut the cord immediately and neonatal emergency was called to help baby breathe, but I was calm - I instinctively knew she was fine, and sure enough, after a few seconds, they reported her breathing and heart rate as fine. I had a little cuddle with her before they took her away to NICU for monitoring while the doctor stitched up my episiotomy.

She was born after less than 3 hours of labour at 7lbs 6ozs (the growth scan was way off!) and I was over the moon that she'd arrived safe and well. I was so grateful to the amazing team who delivered her and my husband who was so so calm and supportive all the way through, offering me water, light touch massage, positive affirmations and encouraging words. (Although I found out afterwards he was pretty scared and was just doing a great job of covering it up!)

36 hours later (we had to stay in hospital overnight as our baby girl had to have antibiotics because she had pooed a lot during the birth) we were going home with our beautiful baby girl. Although it was not the home birth we had envisaged, it was a positive birth experience for me in the end and I felt immensely proud of our achievements. We trusted our instincts to help us navigate some really tricky choices and without the information, skills and reassurance we received from Anna through her hypnobirthing course, it would have been a very different experience.

Thank you Anna for helping us to have faith and believe in ourselves.