The baby was stuck and in distress. I had become so exhausted because I had been awake all night, then in the pool for four hours. After being in hot water all that time I was very, very weary, and when it came to actually pushing, my body could not do it. The midwife had called for more staff to help. The intimate calmness of the pool, chat and music was replaced by feeling very cold on a delivery bed with what seemed like a sea of panicking faces around me and shouting at me to ‘push’. My exhausted body just could not get the hang of pushing at all, and everyone still seemed to be shouting at me – who were all these strangers? I remember saying to Nick,
‘I’ve had enough take me home now, that’s it, let’s go’.
