Just when you think you're going to be pregnant forever...WHAM BAHM...We'd gone out shopping after I'd picked Wayne up from work. We all desperately needed hair cuts and decided to eat out while we were at it. I'd had no contractions all day, which was something of a relief as I'd been having hours of them in odd runs fot the last two weeks. Anyway, as we sat down to it I felt the first mild crampy niggling. No greater or less than what I had been having. Being thoroughly annoyed with these "go nowhere" runs of contractions I decided to ignore them until further notice, so we ate, got our hair cuts (amused ourselves by telling the staff there that I was 39 weeks pregnant and was having contractions...haha!)

Anyway, as we got in the car to leave we decided to go pick up my niece Tara, who is 22-years-old and is interested in becoming a midwife. I invited her to be at the birth some time ago. It was really more of a whim than any serious thought that anything was happening. Tara lived some distance away and doesn't have a car so we figured it would be easier to pick her up now and be mistaken, than try to arrange her coming later.

Anyway, niggly half-hearted contractions continued from 7:30pm, going nowhere, about ten minutes apart, same as I had been having. I rang my midwife to let her know that I was having them, but we decided that since nothing regular had been established and it wasn't getting any stronger that she would remain home on stand by.

By 11:30pm I was tired and decided to head for bed. These niggly contractions seemed to be weakening off with up to 20 minutes break inbetween them. Both the boys were sound asleep but Wayne decided to stay up and play computer games as he often does. Tara stretched out on the couch.

I dozed in bed, periodically roused by the odd contraction, nothing any greater than what I had felt while out shopping.

Then it hit!

12:30am I was struck with an absolutely gianormous contraction that ate my back, my pelvic area and right down both thighs. I wanted desparately to stand up put I was paralysed. As soon as it subsided, about 1.30 minutes later, I crawled out of bed and stumbled into the computer room. I told Wayne I thought things were happening and then I went back into the bedroom to retrieve the phone...but I didn't make it, that contraction's twin brother followed only 45 seconds behind the first. I leaned against the wall and howled! Meanwhile, my 2-year-old son had started to stir so Wayne dashed into the bedroom to try and put him back to sleep.

Another contraction hit before I could finish dialing the phone so I had to wait before I could speak to Angela (my midwife). I told her that the party had definately started. She heard my voice and said she'd be there in 45 minutes.

Tara was getting up off the couch after my next contraction...about 30 seconds apart now and real doozies! Together we spread the tarp and sheet down on the living room floor and inbetween contractions I dashed to assemble the other necessities. During each contraction I hung off the furniture.

Wayne rang his mother to come take Chayton as he was tired and miserable and just wanted his mummy. (Sorry baby boy, I can't help you now!) She collected him ten minutes later.

Tara put the kettle on for coffees while I swung between hanging off Wayne's neck groaning and howling and standing around chatting and cracking jokes in the now 20 second intervals between these humungous contractions. Wayne had been digging his knuckles into my lower back to ease the pain but his fingers were getting sore (oh the poor boy..hehe), so I asked Tara to fill a hot water bottle for my back and we'd see how that went. (It was beautiful!!!!)

This went on fast and furious till about 1:20 when a particularly large contraction popped my water with a nice satisfying gush all over the tarp and everybody's feet! Tara got back on the phone to Angela who was now only 15 minutes away. "Don't worry," she said. "If I don't make it in time Peta can handle it!" We laughed.

More contractions, now only 15 seconds apart...argh I hope this isn't going to go on for hours....

1:28...and I felt the familiar pressure in my back passage, you know it...like you need to do a bowel action. I just squawked "I can feel the head coming..." and grinned internally at what Wayne's and Tara's faces must have looked like.

"What do we do?" asks Tara of Wayne.

"I don't know!" replies Wayne helpfully.

I knew what I was doing...I was having a baby..right there, right then, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

I was still standing up leaning against Wayne, no time for a position change, so I dropped my right hand down to my perineum to support her head as I felt it move down and fill up my birth canal. Unasked, Tara dropped down between my feet ready to help. It felt excellent to push, I really do enjoy this part, and feeling the top of her head blossoming out into my hand was just sheer magic!!!

With one push the head was out, but the contraction was still going hard and fast. With a huge act of will I stopped pushing to the tune of Wayne and Tara urging "Stop pushing, stop pushing, gotta' check the neck." I managed that for all of ten seconds during which Tara found the cord looped around the back of her neck, she wriggled it loose. I felt my baby's shoulders rotate internally into the right position and that was about as long as I could hold out...I let go with the rest of the contraction and Kyra slid effortlessly into the world straight into her eldest cousin's hands!!!

After untangling the cord from around her wriggling body, Tara handed her up to me and we stood together admiring this absolutely gorgeous little bundle of love who just couldn't wait to be born.

Five minutes later Angela arrived. She had sensed she had missed the birth but was so happy for us that it didn't matter. We sat and laughed and chatted drinking the best coffee and tea ever. I felt absolutely euphoric. I wish I could bottle that sensation, I had it just after birthing my other two boys as well. My eldest son Ryan stirred about this time so Wayne brought him out for a few minutes to meet his baby sister. Ryan bent down and cuddled her while she lay on my lap before going back to bed wearing a sleepy grin. The placenta dropped out with a push about 30 minutes later and I went and showered while Daddy got to hold his little girl.

After my shower Kyra decided she wanted to feed and she latched on like she'd been doing it all her life...what a girl! We finally fell into bed at about 4:30.

Kyra Monique Hewitt. 1:30 AM, November 4th, 7pounds, 50cm.

More from Peta:

Laura - I was reading your article on painless births and just had to write and tell you that I know for a fact that completely painless labour and birth does happen! This is the tale of three different women...two of whom are my own sisters.

Firstly my eldest sister Karen didn't even realize she was in labour till she was told by her doctor at her 39 week appointment. He sent her straight into hospital. The staff there didn't believe she was in labour as she was wandering around happily laughing and joking with them and the other mothers. She felt absolutely nothing until an urge to bear down came along. Five minutes later Tara was born. Karen swears the only thing she felt besides the urge to push was her perineum stretching over the baby's head.

Her second daughter was stuck in breech position for her birth. Karen was in hospital at the time, she had gone over her due date and the doctor was planning to induce her. She woke up in the morning and refused breakfast even though she was feeling fine. She was sitting up in bed joking with one of the nursing staff when suddenly she felt something wet between her legs....it was a little FOOT! She looked up at the nurse and said there was a foot sticking out. The nurse didn't believe her til she pulled the covers back and saw for herself. She ran to get the doctor. In the mean time the other foot appeared along with most of the length of the legs. The doctor came running and Karen delivered 9 pound 4 ounce Adele in two more pushes. There wasn't even time to transfer her to the labour suite, she just delivered in the general ward!

(By the way, we're all kinda short in my family, Karen is only 4 foot 11 inches.)

My other sister Erika was under the "care" of an obstetrician so unfortunately she copped an episiotomy with both her births. She says it was the only pain she felt for the entire births of both her son and daughter. She only knew she was contracting because she felt her belly hardening every few minutes.

Incidentally, my mother, my sister Robyn and myself have all experienced the usual labour pains, though none of us considered them unendurable agony and none of us have ever wanted or had medical pain relief for them. My mum had three homebirths back in England in the days where this was normal. (She had 7 babies all together, the other four in hospital because at the time she had no other alternative.) Her attitude towards labour mirrors mine...you lean on something when the contractions get heavy and inbetween them you just get with doing whatever it is around the house you're doing.

Okay, I did say three. This one is from a magazine article a few years ago. A fifteen-year-old girl was experiencing mild tummy pains and diarrhea. She assumed she had some sort of stomach bug and had a bath to relax and put herself to bed early. She woke up some hours later, aroused by the cries and the sensation of something bumping her legs under the blankets. Alarmed she pulled back the covers to find a wriggling, pink baby girl still attatched to her via the umbilical cord lying on the bed between her legs. No doubting where that came from! She wasn't even aware that she was pregnant! In shock she scooped up the infant and ran into her parents' room. Her boyfriend, who had been staying over the night sleeping on the couch, took one look at the girl, the baby and her parents heading down the hallway and into the loungeroom and leapt up and ran out the front door heading for the hills in his pajamas. He probably thought that "Grand-dad" would be looking for his rifle next!

Anyway I thought I'd share these personal experiences of painless labour with you since you had researched the subject. Mum, Robyn and I all see birth not as a medical event but a natural one... like eating or having an orgasm...it's just something the female body was designed to do, no fuss. Hope you found this interesting.