"The birth of my first baby"

I transferred to Forth Valley maternity team from the Royal in Glasgow as I heard such wonderful stories about the care provided there from several friends. They highly recommended the birthing unit equipped with the private birthing pools in several rooms, mood lighting and general approach to this important event, very much giving the mother all the choices and power to choose, it being their body and their experience. By empowering the mother there was a real sense of teamwork between mother, baby and midwives.

I had gestational diabetes and aged 40 I opted for an induced labour at 38 weeks. I was given a private room and warm welcome on arrival, where I had the most wonderful and attentive care from all the teams until I was transferred to the labour room late on Saturday evening. The labour room was dimly lit with a beautiful painted mural on the wall of an olive grove. There were gentle music beats playing in the background which was great because my induction had progressed quickly and there was no time to hook up my own.

There was a birthing pool in the corner but again no time to use it on this occasion! I laid down on my side on the low lying mattress bed and the midwife gave me a ball to prop between my legs. She let me choose the position I felt most comfortable in and calmly prepared the room after introducing herself. She was soothing and warm, obviously experienced as she had no warning I was arriving but made me feel calm and in control anyway. There was no time for an epidural but her gentle encouragement and assurances that I was doing it already and my body knew what to do meant I relaxed into the experience and just focused on her instructions and guidance.

My partner arrived 30 minutes before our girl made her appearance and crouched down next to me on the mattress bed holding my hand and wiping my face with a cloth.

The midwife was behind me and very much stood back and let Stephen have a real presence and role encouraging me that I could focus on, making it feel like a real team effort for us as a couple. She was wonderfully discreet checking all the vitals but not intruding on this special experience and stepping back at times to give us that intimate experience that we will never forget.

It was all rather spiritual in that last pushing part of the labour and I really didn't feel pain at all, just a calm focus as my body took over. When she was born the midwife placed our girl on me skin to skin with extended time before Stephen cut the cord which was an incredible special bonding moment.

We sat as a family for 20 minutes just looking at each other and she barely even cried as she came out and was very calm as she lay there which I definitely think was because the birth was so smooth and tranquil, she had no traumatic entrance to the world to upset her. She's actually a very relaxed baby which again I attribute to the experience I had at FV.

My post natal care was equally as wonderful with round the clock checks, again my own room and lots of support with feeding and changing her and me physically and emotionally. I stayed in hospital for two nights and days due to the post diabetes checks, but wasn't getting rushed out at all and encouraged to take my time. Although eager to get home I appreciate that those first couple nights support in hospital with the team are so important for mums recovery and rest too as it is a lot harder once home so take advantage while you can.

I highly recommend Forth Valley and cannot thank the team enough for being so fantastically caring, professional, warm and loving and making my first birth experience so beautiful. It has given us a strong start and I feel very lucky to have had that as my experience - I would love everyone to be as fortunate!

What a top notch team, thank you, thank you, thank you, from all Three of us. We will be back for number 2!! xx