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James was certainly born around or on his due date.
I have no idea how I managed to get through the gruelling 9 hours or so, but I managed to be ready to push. And push I did. But nothing was happening. Everyone was telling me to push harder, but still the little so and so would not come out. Over an hour of this and the nurses, sensing something was not right, got an obstetrician to take a look. He declared that James was in the posterior position, so his spine was against mine and he probably would not be able to get out without help. At which point, out came the dreaded stirrups and I was given a J cut (don't ask) and a Keillands Rotation. It was the stuff of nightmares and I had no idea that any human could remain conscious through such appalling pain. After the rotation he was pulled out with forceps (as was common practice 25 years ago - nowadays it would be a caesarian). He was a beautiful and perfect, healthy little boy. They took a while to stitch me back together (28 stitches, the gentleman told me) and a very, very long time before I was well again.
2 and a half years later....I suppose having had the birth from hell, it was quite a miracle that I would actually want to go through with it again. Nature is rather clever though and it's hard to recall pain. Tom was not a planned baby and I really am not sure how he even happened, but it was such a wonderful thing and I really looked forward to having another child. I share my birthday with my late father and it would have been very special if this little one could be born on the same day. And I did well, 2 days after our birthday (11 days before he was due) he decided to enter this world. So off I went again.
I was still married to my now ex, but things were far from well between us. When I found out I was pregnant again (another miracle conception) it went down like a ton of sick. It was the unhappiest of pregnancies and my dear friend stepped in as birthing partner. Again, I woke with normal mild labour pains and spent the day working them off as best I could. The bigger problem was that my birthing partner was about to go on holiday and I could not get in touch with her at all. After a day of worry, she finally got back to me and agreed to meet me at the hospital.