"Birth of our baby girl"

I don't usually write reviews but, since the birth of our daughter two weeks ago, I thought it would be nice for any future first time mums heading to Chelsea and Westminster to add a positive note of our experience.

My preference was to have gone into spontaneous labour, stay at home as long as possible then have a natural birth but, due to the baby not moving much, we were induced one week before due date. From there on in, everything in my birth plan went completely out the window. In the end it took 71 hours for her to come.

As this was my first baby, I would have thought that her movements slowing and the fact nothing went to plan (thank you body) would have sent me into a complete spin, but the midwives and staff from monitoring to actual delivering of the baby were, honestly, the kindest and most calming people we could have asked for and made what could have been a horrid and frightening experience, absolutely fine. We even found time for laughter.

After she was born, we needed to stay in for at least 24 hours for observations and, again, we were really appreciative of the support we received for myself and our baby. As soon as she arrived we obviously completely forgot everything we had learned in antenatal classes but no question felt too stupid to ask (helpful when you are emotional). I was also particularly anxious about breast feeding and felt like they got the balance right in terms of encouragement and not pressurising when I was struggling.

My partner and I had also previously planned to book a private room, but decided we didn't need to in the end because we were quite happy where we were.

Overall we felt looked after and safe, which meant that despite what I went through, we were able to try and focus on the excitement of what was happening and enjoy it.