HELEN STEELE

Designer, three children I was 23 when I had my oldest, Chloe. I went in saying “give me all the pain relief ”, terrified. But your natural survival mode kicks in. You get this massive urge to power through. I thought I was going to give myself a brain haemorrhage, I was pushing so hard. The second was two weeks late. My friend told me about this yoga pose, I was doing that when my waters broke. I had been swimming four times a week and doing lots of yoga and walking so I think that really helped. But, by God, she was in no panic. Near the end, I said “I’m wrecked, I can’t do this level of pain for much longer” and that’s when I caved in and got the epidural. My third was nearly born in the car. By the time we got to the hospital, they said it might be too late to give me an epidural. I said “I don’t care, give me one”, and started shouting, and they did. The most difficult part is not giving birth, it’s caring for the baby afterwards, it’s so fecking hard.