Just in case you want some more, here are mine!

I wish that I was as prepared for the baby to come early as I was for it to come late. All pregnancy I had been psyching myself up not to get worried when my due date came and went - was expecting baby to come a week or more after her due date, and to my surprise she was 10 days early.

I wish I had trusted my instincts and knowledge that my waters breaking WERE actually my waters breaking and not anything else like the midwife at the hospital tried to convince me. Not that it really mattered anyway.

I wish that I had not got so excited or anxious (even though I was trying to temper my mood) when my waters broke - I didn't realise it would be so long until contractions began (30 hours later) and that it would be another 24 hours after that by the time I would be holding my baby. You seriously need all the rest you can get at that time.

I wish that I had known the little contractions were little contractions and just slept through them.

I wish I hadn't got DH timing each contraction so early on. It seemed like forever (well it was 13 hours!!) before they got close enough to go into hospital for. Just leave the timing until you start feeling uncomfortable with how often they are happening, and trust that you really know when it's getting to be time!

In some ways I wish that I hadn't told my parents we were going into hospital, but I think I still would tell them- they'd only ring to find out anyway. But I do wish that I had told them to wait it out until WE contacted them. I have only just found out that they rang the hospital more than once- I knew that they rang at one stage, as I was moving between the birth centre and the labour ward just before getting an epidural - the lady said that my dad was on the phone and I distinctly remember telling them to tell him to **** off. I mean, what did they think- that I had had the baby and wasn't telling them about it, or that I had died and nobody let them know??!! Honestly, there was nothing they could have done except to wait to hear the news. I know I was taking my time, but them ringing wasn't going to make it come any quicker.

I wish that I hadn't assumed that my body was made to give birth to babies. That because my mum had four babies with no problems and no drugs that I would be the same. That because I am able to control everything else in my life, I could control my labour and that it was all mind over matter! No matter what they say, birth is extremely physical - mind over matter works for the contractions- they are definitely bearable, especially with showers and baths, etc. But there is no escaping the physical part when things aren't going as smoothly as they should.

I wish that I had more thoroughly practiced the information in the Pink Kit, instead of laughing at the funny New Zealand and American accents! I wish that I could have convinced DH to help me take the videos more seriously and to help be my birth partner. I didn't know when watching the videos how much I would need some of the techniques and got lazy and didn't practice. I knew the general gist of it, which helped with my positions in labour, but when in the midst of it you need someone there to remind you what to do as your mind goes a bit blank. I'm not sure that this is something I could get right next time and would consider the use of a doula to do the reminding for me.

I wish that I had known that having a baby who has been in the perfect position in your belly for weeks before labour, doesn't mean she is going to stay that way. The first hint was when I got into the bath (yes it is WONDERFUL pain relief) and I could feel intense pain in the front of my pelvis, where my baby's head was hitting the bone with each contraction. The second reason I knew she wasn't headed in the right direction was when I could feel her feet kicking into my ribs on the totally opposite side of my body to where she had been laying- I just knew she shouldn't be so high up. It turned out that she was posterior and coming in to my pelvis at a very strange angle. If I had known that this would happen after the weeks of feeling content that she was doing the right thing and would continue to do so in labour, I wouldn't have been so smug about not fully researching the positions to help her get into a better position.

I wish I had known that no matter how much pregnancy yoga and pregnancy chiropractic therapy I got, no one was going to decide how my baby was positioned, apart from her!

I wish I hadn't felt so defeated when I had to accept to having an epidural, in the hope that this might relax me enough to allow me to fully dilate while she was pushing into my pelvic bone. But at least I knew that my midwife wouldn't offer this option unless we were getting nowhere.

I wish that I wasn't so exhausted when it came to trying to push. I wish that I had told them that although the epidural had worn off, I was losing it and wasn't timing my pushing with the contractions as well as I could have, but I was just too exhausted by this point.

I wish that I had've researched more about having a ceasarean- not that I regret it or that anything untoward happened in there, I guess I just didn't know the things I should have requested or things like how long it would take for them to stitch me up before we could relax together as a family.

I wish that I didn't feel regret for the labour I had. I was really comfortable with it all in the days follwing my baby's birth, as I knew that I did everything I could have at the time to get her out naturally, or at least vaginally. But now as the weeks go on I am second guessing myself and going over what I could have done differently.

I am so sorry for the length of this post - I think I should have put this in the birth debriefing section - it certainly has at least helped me get a lot of this off of my chest- hope some of it helps you!