As a young mum waiting confidently to be delivered by the district midwife. I was the perfect candidate. I managed to persuade my doctor that I was used to babies, having lived with my sister who had young children, to have the baby at the maternity unit and go home after 48 hours.
Everything went according to plan. The midwife at the relaxation classes asked if we had a mild backache, a surge of energy (baked several apple pies for my husband for when I will be away, 48 hours, 5 apple pies!) and our due date was soon. I was due the following date. I am always on time so I assumed that was natural. Indeed the following morning I had a show that indicates that labour had started. My husband and I read all the books and everything was happening just as described!
As we lived in Whalley Drive at the time it seemed natural to just stay put until close to the time of the delivery (we were warned this might take a long time as it was our first baby!) So we sat down with a pad and paper and wrote down all the contractions until it was closer to them being more frequent. We then phoned the unit that we were going to arrive soon. The amusing thing was that the district midwife was busy washing her car, not knowing she had a due delivery (administrative work never gets better!)
The baby was delivered by the district midwife with the help of my husband at 7.20pm and I was going home by Sunday lunchtime. All in all a great experience and with the least interference.
Our following four children were born in Aylesbury. After the youngest was born I was lucky to be transfered to the Whally Drive clinic where I met some of the staff from my previous brief visit. My ten days there were fantastic. I enjoyed my stay, the friendly staff, the relaxed atmosphere and the small size of the unit was really great. It was also my last baby and having had a short visit with my first baby this brought back a lot of memories. A very enjoyable experience altogether.