Labour and delivey - the timetable

	2.00am	Bridget starts to get contractions whilst lying in bed. She had felt a few twinges over the previous two days, but now they seemed to be more regular. At 3 o'clock Malcolm "wakes up". The contractions start to come at about ten minute intervals, so we begin timing the period - about ten minutes at this stage.
	4.00 am	Time for some help with the pain. Bridget had hired a TENS machine from Boots and had used it on and off for the previous two days during the twinges. Now she presses it into continuous service and it helps a bit.
	5.00 am	We're pretty sure it's all happening, and make call to the Wycombe hospital labour ward, where a rather sleepy-sounding midwife answers. Maybe they've been having a busy time down there and they're tired, or a quiet time and they're asleep. The widwife says to wait until the contractions have been five minutes apart for a couple of hours and then call again. The contractions respond by going to five minutes almost at once!
	6.00 am	We decide to get up and have breakfast. A quick call to Bridget's parents to tell them that things had started, and then a regular breakfast punctuated by several contractions.
	7.30 am	Contractions become more acute, and we call the labour ward again. They are not too busy, so they say to come in now and avoid the traffic.
	8.00 am	We arrive at the labour ward and are met by Carole, the midwifery sister. The fetal monitor is stuck on for 20 minutes, and shows heart rate to be fine, and contractions to be regular and strong.
	9.00 am	The first examination - just 2cm dilated! And after 7 hours of labour! We agree to wait for two hours to see how things go.
	11.00 am	Dilation measured at 4cm. However the pain is getting too much for Bridget, so our "old friend" (as Carole described it) gas and air is pressed into service. The difference is almost immediate. Bridget, when down from the ceiling between the gas and air highs she now experienced during contractions, said she still felt the pain, but that somehow it didn't matter. We persist with this arrangement for another two hours.
	1.00 pm	Once again the pain is getting to the point of Bridget's tolerance. Another examination shows the good news that 7cm dilation had been reached, but now the question was, should we have the waters broken, increasing both speed of progress but also pain, or just let things take their course. We decide to let things proceed naturally, but in the event that decision wasn't really needed anyway. Soon after 1.00pm Bridget went to the loo, felt sick (effects of the gas) and in the process of being so her waters broke from the internal pressure. So, suddenly and unexpectedly, when back in the labour room she was being asked to bear down and push. We give up on gas and air at this point to restore some semblance of control, and Carole reminds Bridget to get onto all fours on the bed for the final push, which meant the TENS machine had to come off. We are joined by Linda, an extra midwife, and soon the pushing is paying off, with the top of the baby's head becoming clearly visible. After a little while, with bouts of pushing and excruciating pain on Bridget's part, the baby's face starts to appear. Then much to everyone's surprise, with one huge push the head was delivered immediately followed by the entire body!
	2.00 pm	No time to check if the cord was round the neck, the baby is out, and James Andrew is born on the dot of 2.00pm, August 7^th, 1998.