Hi, I'm Charlotte, aged 33 and mum of three, living in Bristol, UK. I would love to share the story of the birth of my third child, James, because five months on, I still feel empowered and awed by such a positive experience and if I can give birth with no epidural, I'm sure anyone can!

I was deliberating a home birth for my third baby, after two hospital births with epidurals both times. For some reason, I really felt the need to give birth quietly, on my terms, in my own environment and not on a high bed in a brightly lit room. But eventually, due to the fact that we had just laid new carpets and I felt I was expecting another large baby (second baby weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces), I decided to opt for a "low risk" midwife-led birth unit at the hospital where I had delivered before.

As with the other two pregnancies, my due date came and went and I began to feel excessively heavy and uncomfortable and just wanted it over and done with. I then experienced a night of mild contractions between the fourth and fifth day overdue and phoned my parents to come and stay so they could look after my other two children. Frustratingly, the contractions stopped on the fifth day overdue. I went to bed thinking that I would end up being induced again (like my first pregnancy), feeling quite depressed.

I then woke with strong contractions at about midnight, already knackered from lack of sleep from the previous night, and coped on my own until about five o'clock, when my stumbling around the bedroom woke my husband, who came downstairs with me, put on an episode of CSI and promptly fell back asleep on the sofa! I watched CSI, sitting on a chair backwards, for about half an hour, then got in the bath until the kids woke up. I immediately thought, "Bugger this, there's no way I can cope with this pain with the house full of noisy kids and my parents," and decided to go to the hospital, knowing in the back of my mind that I was barely dilated.

After being spectacularly sick in the hospital car park (exact re-enactment of labor No. 2!), I was given to a lovely midwife who took one look at me and sympathized about my lack of sleep (now two nights and counting), and offered to examine me. Embarassingly, I was only 2 centimeters dilated!

I then began to get extremely frustrated. I was in so much pain; it had been on and off for a couple of days, and this was my third baby, for goodness sake! She reassured me that third labors start off slow and then speed up very quickly. I didn't believe a word of it and demanded an epidural, in one of the worst moods ever! Luckily, she was very calm and slightly amused by my temper and advised me that an epidural would just make things stop and why didn't I have a shot of pethedine and make my way to the midwife-led unit and have a nice doze? Sleep sounded great, so I had the pethedine and chose the room with the birthing pool because I'd seen a picture of it and it looked lovely!

It was dark and quiet in there and after being sick in the sink the minute I entered the room, I met the midwife who was very calm and put me to bed on a soft mat on the floor. I dozed on and off for two hours and then spent the next couple of hours coming off the pethedine and feeling the contractions bother me more and more.

I started on the gas and air (never helped me before, but was so relaxed from a nice doze and the remains of the pethedine that it seemed to be just what I needed) and let her examine me – 8 centimeters – hooray!

She then began to fill up the pool and I used the gas and air while kneeling over some pillows. The midwife was so calm and supportive, yet really hands-off, that at no point did I feel scared about the prospect of no epidural. I just felt that I was coping with the pain and able to focus on coping because of the calm, quiet room and relaxing soft music (some generic hippy dippy relaxation tape!)

Once the pool was ready, I climbed into it and was immediately struck by how soothing and comforting and just lovely the warm water was. It covered my tummy and I could still use the gas and air because it was coming through such a long pipe.

The rest of the labor is hazy because I think I slept on and off between the rest of the contractions with my head resting on the side of the pool. I found it quite useful to moan into the gas and air mouthpiece and can remember finding the sound of my husband and the midwife chatting quietly very soothing because I knew it meant that everything was OK. The most the midwife did during this period was place an underwater monitor on my bump to check the baby's heartbeat every now and again.

I felt no urge to push but upon examination was found to be fully dilated, so I had a go at pushing and discovered an overwhelming urge to push once I'd pushed through the pain of a contraction (quite tricky!) I could then feel the baby descending down into my vagina and finally, the head crowning (not as scary as I'd imagined, but quite overwhelming, having not felt anything during my previous two labors). I can remember doing my only bit of shouting and swearing at this point, which to the midwife's amusement I immediately apologized for!

Then his head was out, which I looked at while waiting for the next contraction, and then his shoulders and then the whole baby, who was delivered onto my tummy as I was, by that point, resting back against the side of the pool, with my husband holding my shoulders. Wow! James lay on my chest, looking around quietly while I stroked his back and breathed deeply, gasping "I did it!" every now and then!

Once the water started turning an unpleasant color, I slowly climbed out, still holding James, cord still attached to the placenta, which was still inside me. I sat on the floor and breastfed James and eventually delivered the placenta without the need for an injection. The cord was cut and James was weighed – 9 pounds, 12 ounces! No stitches, only a very small tear.

What an amazing experience. Once I was in the midwife-led unit it was truly magical and so incredibly relaxed. The midwife was fabulous because she was so calm and hands-off and a doctor who popped in at the end (instead of another midwife) to see the birth because she'd never seen a water birth before was obviously quite moved by the whole thing!

It was a very special experience and one that will never be forgotten! James is a happy, smiley baby who breastfeeds well and sleeps through the night (with the help of some formula, I must admit!).

I would urge everyone to think about a water birth. I'm absolutely rubbish with any kind of pain, but genuinely think that the warmth of the water helped take the edge off it and the gas and air aided me further and gave me something to focus on. At no point was I coerced into anything, just gently advised that I would be absolutely fine in the midwife-led unit, and I was!

James Anthony Condon, born April 13, 2007, at 3:30 p.m.