Ineke’s labour was a beautiful whirlwind

Ineke and Jake attended Calmbirth with me at around week 30 of Ineke’s pregnancy.

They were both so keen to learn all about birth and how to utilise the Calmbirth tools and skills for a positive birth.

Ineke’s Birth story filled me with such joy and I hope you enjoy reading their amazing journey into parenthood.

“On the 6th of November 2025 I was 39+4 weeks pregnant, and had been on maternity leave for almost two weeks. Apart from some pelvic girdle pain, reflux, and poor sleep, I was feeling pretty comfortable and in no rush to get the baby out. I was content being pregnant and honestly didn’t expect to go into labour until at least 41 weeks because that’s what everyone had told me was normal for a first time mum! So I’d spent the two weeks relaxing; I got a massage, spent time with Jake, had afternoon naps, caught up with friends, got my nails and brows done, danced around the house to my favourite 70s jams, and did some intense nesting cleaning (on this particular day I scrubbed the kitchen sink for a good couple of hours!). Other than the normal braxton hicks and some irregular and mild period cramping two days prior, there were no signs of labour so I was just embracing the last moments of just me and Jake.

On this day we had a routine midwife appointment; everything was as it should be – baby’s head was 2/5 engaged and baby’s heart beat was strong. Naomi (the midwife) talked us through when to call the hospital and booked us in for a post-dates appointment assuming we’d probably make it to 41 weeks. We asked Naomi when she thought baby might come and she joked that after 10 years of working as a midwife, she still never knows and that we could even have our baby in our arms tomorrow (she later admitted she really didn’t expect that to happen though)… we went home, I finished scrubbing the kitchen, we took some updated bump photos and had some dinner.

20 minutes after taking the bump photos, at about 1845hrs I was sitting on the lounge watching parks and rec with Jake when I had a sudden urge to poop. I’d been so constipated through the pregnancy so any chance to poop felt like a gift, lol, so I excitedly jumped up to head to the bathroom. I sat on the toilet, had what I thought was a gas pain, but then felt a pop in my lower tummy and a huge gush- my waters had well and truly broken!! I was honestly so shocked! I thought I’d be one of those people whose water breaks after contractions started, and I wasn’t even 40 weeks yet! I yelled out to Jake and he was just as surprised as me. After giggling hysterically for a few minutes as we realised this was happening, we called the midwives. They asked us to come in for a CTG to check that baby was ok with the change to his living arrangements and to make a plan moving forward. I still hadn’t finished packing my hospital bag and Jake hadn’t event started his (lol oops) so I insisted that we took the time to do that because I didn’t think there was any rush but I wanted everything done just in case they admitted us to the ward. At this stage I wasn’t having any contractions, but felt like I was getting my normal braxton hicks that I’d been having for weeks.

We left home at 1920hrs when I started having some period cramps. Nothing intense, but bad enough that I noticed them. I realised this was really happening! We got checked out at the hospital and everything looked good- baby was comfy and I was doing well. The midwives explained that being a first time mum, my water breaking doesn’t really mean that I’m about to have a baby and I may need to be induced if I’m not in active labour by the morning of the 8th. I had a massage booked in for the next day and they encouraged me to still go to it if I was feeling how I was at that time. They sent us home, encouraged us to get some sleep, and unless anything progressed before this, to come back to the hospital at 1800hrs the next day for IVABx (because my waters had broken). I was really keen to avoid the interventions so was praying hard that things wouldn’t take too long to move.

At about 2045hrs we left the hospital. I went to the toilet on the way out and had my first *spicy* contraction as I stood up from the toilet – it caught my attention and I really focused on keeping positive about it, that it was a sign that my body was working and it was a step closer to meeting our baby.

By the time we got home at 2130hrs I was having regular contractions. I wasn’t timing them but I was still talking through them and in good spirits. They were distracting, but I was able to breathe through them quite easily. They felt like a mixture of period pain, diarrhoea cramps, and nausea.

I couldn’t tell if I should sit on the toilet or keep moving and when I sat on the toilet I couldn’t poop and the pain was worse!

The plan was to eat some food, lie on the lounge with Netflix, and maybe get some sleep… alas that was not to be! Jake chopped up a stack of carrots for me to eat with hummus and I jumped in the shower and while in the shower the contractions really started to set in. I was swaying, breathing, humming, and singing through the contractions, standing still was not going to work, and leaning over helped make the pain more bearable. The hot water in the shower really helped but I got out of the shower because I didn’t want to run out of hot water before the pain got really bad. The song I was mainly singing was the hymn “it is well”. It gave me peace and something to focus on other than the contraction. I think singing also helped me to focus on my breathing and keep my jaw loose.

At around 2230hrs we’d decided that Jake should try getting some sleep as we were expecting a long night and I was happy to do the early labour on my own. So he took his regular sleeping medication (huge lol in hindsight) and went to bed. Before he went to bed he put the TENS machine on my back just in case I needed it… I immediately needed it! I kept the TENS on the lowest setting that I could and it was really effective! I tried to lie on the lounge in front of my comfort show Gilmore Girls but I just couldn’t. So I continued swaying, breathing, and walking through the contractions with my TENS doing the heavy lifting. I ate some carrots and not long after vomited them up.

From here it starts to become a bit of a blur because I really entered labour land. I’d moved into the baby room, and found comfort sitting on the rocking chair. Gilmore Girls remained on in the background (not that I was paying attention to it) and during contractions I’d rock and breathe, practising visualisation techniques and my positive affirmations. In between contractions I’d put my head back and I think I had little micro sleeps in between. I was so relaxed. It was hard but so doable and I felt really in control. I still wasn’t timing my contractions really… occasionally I’d look down at my TENS machine’s timer but I wasn’t really in the headspace to interpret the data, nor did I want to be. In hindsight, they were coming hot and fast, fluctuating between 1-3 minutes apart… probably should’ve called the midwives and jumped in the car at that point but I just wasn’t thinking!

Jake was still in bed, hahaha.

At some point, probably around midnight (I’d stopped being able to jot down progress notes by this stage) Jake got up to go to the bathroom and came to check on me, I remember feeling nauseous at this point because I asked for a vomit bag. He held my hand through a contraction and I said to him that it was getting hard but I was ok. I was still reserving the higher settings on the tens machine for “when I’d really need it”. He went back to bed, and shortly after that I couldn’t sit in the rocking chair anymore. Somewhat suddenly it felt way too uncomfortable and more painful and I felt pressure in my bum. So I walked back out to the lounge room, and the contractions were so painful when I stood upright. I’d just made it to the kitchen when I did a huge vomit in the sink, lent over the bench for another contraction and felt intense pressure in my bum. I thought I was being weak because I’d assumed I was still in early labour because it hadn’t been that long and everyone told me that as a first time mum nothing would happen tonight. I spoke to Jake and said that I’m probably being dramatic but I think we need to call the midwife to get some advice. We called at 0030hrs and Jake told them that my contractions were lasting 1.5 minutes and coming every 30sec-1.5 minutes. The midwives were like “oh so they’re coming every three minutes?! Yes you need to come in!”.

The pressure in my bum was building and it felt like I needed to poop. If I leant into the pressure, it made the pain so much more bearable. I got dressed, and waited for a break between contractions to walk to the car. As I stepped off the front step a contraction started, it was too painful to stand through it so I popped a squat at the corner of our house, clinging to the house for dear life, when my body automatically pushed!

I swear I had no control, it was the most insane feeling and felt way better than the contractions. I made it through and bolted for the car.

We had a 40 minute drive to the hospital and I knew I was pushing! I didn’t want to tell Jake though because I didn’t want him freaking out. That lasted about 5 minutes, while on the Hume motorway I admitted to Jake that I was starting to push, and we needed to call the midwives because this baby was coming!!

We called them at 0050hrs and the midwives asked us to hang up, pull over and call an ambulance. I initially said to Jake “nah we can make it”. Jake was speeding at 140km/h (which I think is still pretty conservative considering the circumstance) and praying out loud that God would keep the three of us safe and slow down the delivery of this baby. I was still buckled in but leaning over the middle console because I couldn’t sit on my bum due to the pressure. I don’t remember this, and the time in the car feels like such a blur, but Jake said I was leaning into him with every contraction and he still managed to drive like a champ!

At 0057hrs I made the decision (not that I remember) that we should call 000. They wanted us to pull over the car but due to being on the freeway and in between exits, there was nowhere safe to stop. So Jake kept driving and they kept giving us advice. They asked if we could see the head, but obviously Jake was driving so we couldn’t tell. So they asked me to see if I could feel the head. I remember this so viscerally, I put my hand down there and while he wasn’t crowning, I could definitely feel his head and his soft hair sitting in my vagina. He was right there and it felt incredible. It was a quiet reassurance that we still had a bit of time, but also made it very real that he was on his way!

We made it to the Mittagong exit and pulled over near Bunnings. I took the seatbelt off and transitioned to kneeling on all fours on the front seats. I was really frustrated with the ambulance operator who kept asking me to lie on my back. I ended up yelling at her and said “I’m not going to lie on my back! You’ve obviously never given birth before”…haha oops. Other than that outburst, I still felt pretty calm and I control (mind you, Jake said he couldn’t tell). Jake told the operator he couldn’t see the head, and they reassured us that the paramedics were almost there.

The paramedics arrived (two blokes – one of them was called Ziggy), and in between contractions they got me onto the stretcher. They also initially asked me to lie on my back but you can imagine how I responded to that!

They let me kneel on my knees and hug the top end of the stretcher. I was so grateful and pretty comfortable! I begged the driver to go easy on the bumps and having been in the back of a lights and sirens ambulance before when I worked in ED, I can confidently say he drove really well! It felt like the contractions slowed down in the ambulance.

Time seemed to pause and I felt so relaxed. I was content between contractions and was happy to chat and able to answer questions with the paramedic. Frustratingly though, the paramedic kept trying to make small talk with me whenever a contraction started. And it was always the same question- “so, what do you do for work?”. Bless his cotton socks, I think he was just trying to distract me but it was not welcome assistance. I tried ignoring him and asking politely but he didn’t take the hint. He was my second victim during labour and I ended up yelling at him too, lol “I’m not going to talk to you during a contraction!!”. He very quickly apologised and remained quiet for the rest of the contractions. He was very kind, and I made sure to thank him and apologise for being mean as he left the hospital.

Jake met us at the elevator and I was so relieved to see him again.

We got up to the maternity ward at 0128hrs and were greeted by two beautiful midwives Mardi and Kel. As per my birth preferences they had the lights dimmed and started filling up the bath for me. They got me on the bed to check my vitals first and found that I was mildly febrile at 37.7 so because my waters had already broken I wasn’t allowed to get in the bath. By this point I didn’t really mind. I was comfortable kneeling and hugging the top of the bed and was keen to just keep going with that as I felt that the baby wasn’t far away (the midwives agreed). The midwives told me I had a purple line (the line of your butt crack changes to a purple colour and indicates the cervix is fully dilated and the baby is very low).

This next stage was hard, but it was also bliss. It felt so good to be able to use the contractions for something. It was so peaceful in the birthing suite, I had Jake by my side, and the midwives were so encouraging. They told me I was about to have this baby and kept reassuring me that I was doing a good job. Pushing bloody hurt, but it also somehow felt good. It wasn’t so much the pressure and pushing that hurt, but more the stretching of my perineum that made me want to stop. The midwives used warm compress to help with the stretching pain. I accidentally lent on my TENS machine and ramped the settings up to the most intense setting. At this point I found the TENS more distracting than helpful so Jake turned it off.

They told me they could see the head and I asked what colour his hair was. The midwives got Jake to come have a look and he said that he could see brown hair. This was so motivating – he was so close! I feel like I got the hang of pushing and felt so much relief when his head popped out. Jake exclaimed “he’s here Ineke, well done!” And I thought he meant that the baby was out. I was so confused because it still felt like I had a bag of bones in my vagina but I got excited and sat back to pick him up and the midwives were like “NO!” haha, so I asked Jake to grab the phone to take a photo or video when the next contraction came – Jake JUST made it to see our baby boy come the rest of the way out.

At 0205hrs on the 7th of November 2025 our perfect baby was born.

I remember feeling pure joy!

It was so surreal, but our baby was really here! I did it and I couldn’t have been more proud or happy about it. We spent the next 2ish golden hours doing beautiful skin to skin. We watched in awe as our baby boy did the breast crawl and latched for the first time. It all felt so magical and completely peaceful. It’s wild how normal I felt after pushing a baby out.

The female body is a powerhouse and I’m so proud of what it can do. I was starving though! Mardi the midwife made me a toastie and it slapped. His checks were attended to – he weighed 3290g, was 53cm long, with a head circumference of 35cm and ticked all of the boxes and proved to be a healthy bundle of joy.

I sustained a second degree perineal tear and a periurethral tear. Both required stitches and I needed an IDC due to swelling around my urethra. Despite getting drunk on the gas, I swear the stitches hurt more than labour!! I still had my baby on my chest while they did the stitches and I was so paranoid that I’d drop him while was high on gas. It really felt like I’d had 5 GnTs, lol

I’m sure I said some unhinged things while I puffed away, but I was on cloud 9 and didn’t even mind, lol.

All in all labour was a beautiful whirlwind.

It wasn’t as impossible as I expected it to be and I attribute that to the physical and mental preparation I did in the lead up.

It doesn’t need to be scary and I wish more women knew that.

I felt empowered to trust what my body could do, and leaned into my instincts and it paid off beautifully. I’m a bit sad that Jake missed most of the early stages, but he was there when it really mattered and being on my own allowed me to get really into the groove of things to get labour well established. I reckon we could’ve made it to the hospital without the ambulance, and I feel a bit silly that we called them, but we did the best we could with the information we had at the time based on the advice of the midwives and that’s ok. I wish we got it all on camera so I could relive it over and over again, but since it’s too late for that, I guess I’ll just have to do it all over again, lol, call me crazy, I honestly can’t wait!”