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Lisa*’s birth story: As a midwife I try to maintain a relaxing and calm atmosphere for the woman and her partner as it promotes a positive birth experience.

Lisa and David came into the midwife‐led birth centre for a labour assessment. Lisa was 40 weeks and four days pregnant with her second baby. All of her observations were within normal limits and she was contracting three times in 10 minutes, which felt moderate on palpation. Her waters were intact and the fetal heartrate was normal when I listened in. I took her into a room and encouraged her to eat, drink and mobilise. At this point, her contractions were regular, and I did not feel that there was any indication to offer a vaginal examination.

Whilst they waited for labour to progress, David put some music on a speaker and I turned the lights down low. Lisa breathed calmly through her contractions for a couple of hours whilst I quietly observed her and listened to the fetal heart (FH) every 15 minutes. I also offered aromatherapy, which was accepted. Lisa inhaled frankincense and black pepper oils from a cloth whilst her contractions increased in strength and frequency.

As she began to feel pressure, her waters broke, and she requested to use the birthing pool. She visibly relaxed as she entered the warm water and began to bear down in an all fours position. Aside from quietly listening in every five minutes and checking Lisa's pulse, the room was quiet. David moved a chair closer to the pool and held his wife as she began to have expulsive contractions.

The atmosphere in the room remained calm and primal as the vertex became visible. Lisa listened as I calmly guided her to stop pushing as baby's head crowned. She reached down to touch her baby's head before the body was born with the next contraction. I passed her pink and crying baby girl up to her chest. Lisa held her baby for 10 minutes until the cord stopped pulsating and as baby was keenly searching for her breast. David cut the baby's cord and had some skin to skin with his new daughter whilst I helped his wife out of the pool. The placenta was delivered passively on the toilet into a bowl and, as Lisa had an intact perineum, she began breastfeeding within 30 minutes of birth. As a midwife I helped to facilitate this birth for this couple; however, the woman and her partner were fully in control of the environment and their own experience.