Birth Story: Maisie Kate Waller

By Georgia Bradley

My pregnancy journey started like many with a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom. It was expected and planned for, yet we still had the shock of ‘oh my god, is this real?’ My partner Callum read and re-read the instructions of the test trying to work out if

this was really happening. It was. I was lucky in my job to work with midwives so I always had a rough idea of who I wanted and I was also lucky that my colleague was her husband. Thankfully she had space and took us on. Through my job I was very aware that births do not always go to plan and things change so I knew I didn’t want a set plan that would upset me if it wasn’t followed. My plan was to go with the flow and make the decisions on the day. Of course there were certain aspects I had hoped for; I wanted a water birth and I had hired a TENS machine and wanted to labour at home for as long as possible. I didn’t want pain relief but in the back of my head I doubted my ability to get through the labour and birth without it. My due date came and like the past few days I started the day with a long walk which included lots of curb walking. Just like the previous days I would get cramping during the walk, get home and the cramping would fade away. Disheartened I tried to mentally prepare myself to go overdue and

to prepare for what that would mean if our little one didn’t make an appearance. This was the polar opposite of my thoughts just a week prior. New Zealand had just entered yet another Covid lockdown and I was convinced I was not going to have my baby in lockdown. But nearing the end of my thirty-ninth week of pregnancy I had decided I was done. I wanted the baby out and didn’t care if it meant having her in lockdown. Hence the sudden increase in physical activity when beforehand I hadn’t wanted to move a muscle. The evening of my due date was very standard, it was 6.45pm and I had just finished preparing a pasta bake and was