She said it was like having really bad cramps but that you soon forget about the pain.

Now that I've experienced labour I know the truth. The truth is labour hurts. Hurts more than anything else in the whole wide world.

I'm loathe to talk about it too much because I've got pregnant friends reading this hoping I'll say I was joking and that labour is a synch.

Look, labour is different for every woman, but for me it took more than 24 hours and it was hell.

After 12 hours of contractions [30-60 seconds long with 30-60 second gaps] I'd dilated a measly two centimetres and was slowly losing my mind.

I remember yelling at Sam after being induced, 'in this day and age, why can't they give me something for the pain?'. Poor Sam was silent because he knew I'd already been given five painkillers.

We turned up to the hospital at 8pm on Monday. It wasn't until Wednesday morning I was finally given an epidural.

The epidural didn't work on one side. All the pain was concentrated above my left hip. Great.

They decided to top up the epidural drug, but that didn't work either.

In the end they ripped the drip out of my back and re-inserted it.

Things had gotten better by 4pm- I'd dilated 6cm- but instead of bub's heartbeat increasing after each contraction (or is that decreasing, I can't remember), it was doing the opposite which meant she needed to come out and come out fast.

They doctors informed me I'd need forceps because bub's head felt very cone-like and a suction cap would just fall off. As such they also warned me I'd probably need the chop...

Charming. That's all I needed.

Finally at 6.23pm, Willow arrived. She was perfect. She didn't have a cone head at all. I remember kissing her and telling Sam I loved him. I lay there for an hour while a stranger stitched me up...

********************

I was told not to expect to be sitting up or walking around until a few days' time, but within 24 hours I was doing just that. It was finally on Saturday afternoon I got to go home.

And what a change that has been...