Learning, preparing, trusting my body, and advocating changed everything for me

Margot Florence – 3835 grams
40 + 4
Natural / Water Birth

On the morning of 31st January 2026, I woke with light blood loss and gentle contractions. The first thing I did was burst into tears to Brad because two days earlier I’d broken my hand, and I was really hoping our girl would wait just a little longer to give it time to heal. Brad gently reassured me that if today was the day, our baby knew exactly what she was doing and that there was comfort in trusting her timing and finally getting to meet our daughter.

I called the midwife in Collie to check in, and her advice was to ring an ambulance and head straight to Bunbury. But I knew in my body that I was in early labour – calm, manageable, and nowhere near needing emergency care. If I’d gone in by ambulance and presented to Bunbury, I would’ve been ‘on the clock’ straight away, despite not really being in active labour yet. When I asked Bunbury whether I could labour in water with my broken hand, there was no clear answer, it wasn’t something they were familiar with, as most women in similar situations were encouraged toward pain relief like an epidural because “they are already in pain”.

Brad and I chose to trust my body and our plan. We drove two hours to Perth and spent the day resting at my sister Courtney’s house, letting my body do its thing. Courtney had spent the entire day designing and making a waterproof splint so I could still have my dream water birth – incredible! By 8pm we headed to the Family Birth Centre as things slowly built, but at approximately 9:30pm, everything eased again and we chose to go home and rest.

Twenty minutes down the freeway, labour suddenly intensified. The contractions became strong, nausea hit, and Brad and I just knew we needed to turn around. Walking back into the birth centre felt like stepping into calm. The lights were soft, the space was peaceful, and our midwife was incredible. She knew exactly what I wanted and gave Brad and I the freedom to move, connect, and labour together. I chose not to have CTG monitoring or an IV cannula, as I’d experienced how limiting they felt in my first and second births and wanted to labour freely.

We danced through contractions, changed positions, cuddled, breathed, and followed my body’s lead. Around 11:15pm, I felt the urge to push, and I moved into the bath – my dream of a water birth. Within half an hour at 11:45pm, our beautiful girl was born into the water. It was the most empowering experience of my life. To birth a daughter this way after my boys was something I can’t even put into words. I can’t wait to share my birth stories with her and the boys one day.

This was also my third incredibly positive birth. Birthing my children unmedicated all three times is something I hold with so much pride, it showed me just how capable and strong women truly are. Each time I’ve laboured calmly, choosing natural comfort measures like water, a birthing comb, and a TENS machine, and experiencing such gentle recoveries. I believe a huge part of that comes down to completing the WACHS Positive Birth Program (Hypnobirthing), which completely shifted how we viewed labour and birth and gave Brad and I the tools we needed to feel calm, confident, and in control.

A big part of why we felt so drawn to birthing at the Family Birth Centre this time was because of the beautiful midwife we had with our second baby, Amber. She had come to Collie from the birth centre and we instantly connected with her and her practice. The care and trust she showed us completely changed how we experienced birth, and it was because of that connection that we knew the birth centre was where we wanted to be for this birth.

My journey into advocacy actually began in my first pregnancy, when I was initially misdiagnosed with HELLP syndrome and suddenly labelled high risk. I had to meet with medical staff on all levels and advocate hard to have that diagnosis removed so I could birth at the birth centre this time. At one stage during my first pregnancy, a caesarean had even been tentatively booked. It opened my eyes to how quickly birth can become medicalised, especially in a system where WA has high caesarean rates and physiological birth is often treated as something to manage rather than trust.

While intervention is absolutely lifesaving when needed, spontaneous labour and vaginal birth don’t always fit neatly into a fast-paced medical model and they’re also the kinds of births that don’t generate the same level of money as complex care. Women have been birthing babies since the beginning of time, and our bodies and our babies carry so much innate wisdom. When we feel safe, supported, and informed, birth can unfold so beautifully.

I’ll be honest, sometimes I feel reluctant to share positive birth stories because I’m conscious of how common birth trauma is, and I always want to hold space for women who’ve had really hard experiences. But I also feel like I’m doing birth an injustice if I don’t share the beauty too. Birth can be incredible. It can be empowering. And learning, preparing, trusting my body, and advocating changed everything for me and it’s something I want every woman and their birthing partners to feel empowered to do.