Hanna & Inés story started not according to the plan, as many birth stories do. Earlier than anticipated, and accompanied with quite some stress, Inés was happily born to meet her parents. They got to spend the most wonderful time together with tears of joy and true happiness.

Despite very little going to plan, I still feel like my birth was a wonderfully positive experience.

I was convinced I was going to be overdue with this being my first baby, however, when I went in for a routine growth scan, they kept me in overnight as my blood pressure was sky-high.

I felt totally fine and was more than happy to be in the right place and monitored. One of the consultants that came to see me after the scan suggested that I book in for an induction in a week time, so that would be one week earlier than the due date.

I had only heard negative things about inductions and friends being in labour for days before any action, but I thought "I'll have a week to think about it".

The next morning my blood pressure still had not budged and a different consultant told me that the only way to get it down was to get the baby out...that day!!!

In some ways, the shock of knowing I was going to have my baby 2 weeks early left me with no opportunity to think about worrying.

My hypnobirthing techniques came into play...

I had the pessary inserted at 2 pm and by 9 pm I was heading down to the delivery suite. The midwives I had through the night were amazing and followed my birth plan (what could be catered for anyway!) and gave me so much encouragement.

I had been using a tens machine which was great but then it got to a point where the pain was too much, I didn't get on well with the gas and air so ended up with an epidural.

All was fine until the very end where I was struggling to feel the contractions and really had to be coached to push. In hindsight, the contractions were a breeze but the pushing was something I totally wasn't prepared for!

After a long time pushing, I heard one of the midwives mention theatre and I really didn't want that. Something inside kicked in and I knew I needed to just go for it. With the help of forceps, our baby girl was born.

When she was handed to me the cord was around her neck and she was purple. My husband was really worried but I instinctively knew that she was going to be absolutely fine.

The time we had just the 3 of us after delivery was amazing and a total high. I could not stop crying tears of happiness.