Birth: there's nothing quite like it, and it's clear no two birth stories are the same. Which is why we're asking everyday women and some of our favourite celebrity mums to share theirs, in Mamamia's My Birth Story series.

This week, registered nurse Heather shares exactly how she brought her daughter Charlie, now one, into the world.

I like to think of myself as quite a chilled person.

For every list and to-do list I have for myself, I am equally as cool with not tickinganythingoff those lists.

For example, I have a list of "Things to pack in Charlie’s daycare bag" sitting on my coffee table, and she has been to daycare four times and I haven’t looked at the list since I wrote it.

Watch: Meet The Delivery Room, Mamamia's new podcast all about birth stories. Hosted by Jessie Stephens and produced by Emma Gillespie. Post continues below. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPWrWfRFlpC/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

So, when it came to birth plans, I was open to jotting down everything imaginable - from what breathing strategy I wanted to use to what colour I wanted my LED fake candles to be.

HOWEVER, I decided to not have a birth plan. I didn’t even know what half of the birthing terminology meant, and as someone who doesn’t give birth a whole lot, I knew I wouldn't be able to plan something I had no idea about.

I let super chill Heather take over and just “go with the flow”, and the baby would just slide on out while I drank a cup of tea and the time was right.

Listen: Prue didn't realise she was pregnant until she went into labour. Post continues below.

After talking with one of my fellow pregnant friends about how capable we are and what boss b**ches we would be if we birthed without pain relief, I decided “you know what, let’s do it. Let’s go epidural-free”. So that was the jist of where I wanted to leave my birth plan.

I went to every appointment with no birth plan, even when asked every single visit.

I then became high risk due to my daughter’s lung lesion, and my scans and appointments became fortnightly, and I still maintained that I did not want a birth plan.

Pregnancy progressed, and I had invested in a TENs machine, Fitball, LED candles, a diffuser, essential oils and various creams. I also compiled a lovely and soothing playlist to get me in the mood.

I was in the last weeks of pregnancy when my highschool pal/student midwife showed me a birth plan one of her other mothers and I thought, "Okay, I'll do a birth plan".

My birth plan was as followed: No pain relief except gas, no matter how much I begged. TENs machine on my back, getting in the shower, no episiotomy, no vacuum, no forceps, delayed cord cutting by dad, baby straight on chest and allowing the baby to find the boob on her own.

With my increasing anxiety in pregnancy, now came my increasing anxiety about the inevitable birth and my ability to stick to my birth plan. I had put it in writing and sent it to my student midwife and I looked at it like a contract or a goal to strive for.

I was so determined to stick to my pain relief free birth plan, and thought that maybe because my pregnancy was so horrid, my birth would somehow be a breeze.

The night before my induction, my husband and I spent the night playing video games and eating our last supper as a duo. We climbed into bed at 8:30pm in preparation for the marathon we were about to embark on.

Did I sleep? No. I was understandably nervous at the unknown of what the next day would bring, and the eagerness of finally meeting my very own person.

We called the hospital in the morning to get a time to come in, and they asked us to come in right away.

We were brought to our room, and after a few hours of in-and-out by medical professionals, we got a game plan. They were going to insert a Foley catheter into my cervix and hopefully that would dilate my cervix enough to break my waters. The whole process was meant to least 12 hours, then we would start the Syntocin drip, which would jump-start my body into labour.

With me I had my husband and Rachael (my student midwife) and my midwife from the hospital. The midwife had never put in a Foley catheter, so she asked a colleague to put it in and she would watch and learn along with Rachael.

I would just like to side note, that up until that point, not a lot of people have seen my vagina. I suddenly had three women using me as a telescope and discussing what they were doing.

The thought of having three women staring into my soul made me freeze up, and it was the most painful experience of the whole birth. The woman forced the Foley catheter inside my cervix so hard I thought it was going to poke through my stomach.

After that ordeal was over, I had the sudden urge to pee. I got up, and I felt a warm liquid flowing from my legs and I thought “oh no, it’s too late” and was so embarrassed that I had just peed all over the floor. It was not urine. The midwife had burst my sack, and I was now walking the fluid all over the hospital floor on my way to the toilet.

We had skipped the 12 hour wait for my cervix to open before breaking my waters, so it was time to move rooms and get the party started.

I set up my room with red candles and strapped the TENs machine to my back and sat on the Fitball. I was in for a huge shock when my afternoon shift midwife told me she had to stay in the room the entire time and also had her own student midwife to sit in the room with her.

I was in for a further shock when they hooked me up to the cardiotocography (CTG) machine and was told that it had to stay on me the entire labour, as having an induction meant they needed to keep a close eye on both thebaby and me.

They started the Syntocin drip at 5pm, and now that I had an audience I was suddenly feeling the pressure.

So, here I am with these two midwives just sitting at a desk watching me bounce on this Fitball and breathe through the pain of the sudden contractions. I felt like I was on the show and I didn't want to look weak. I would whimper in pain and then ask if that was normal.

I would ask questions and make jokes and put myself down. I turned myself into this comedy show of trying to make the midwives laugh, despite my immense discomfort. I could not get into the right headspace to prepare me for birth.

Both midwives were at least five years younger than me and neither of them had given birth before, but I was still looking to them to tell me everything was normal.

They were making me feel as though I was in over my head trying to do this without pain relief.

I kept talking about my fear of pooping and apologising for pooping, even though I hadn’t actually pooped. I apologised for being in pain because I thought I was a burden because of the way they were just sitting there with blank looks on their faces.

Then came the uncontrollable farts.

Every time I tried to laugh it off, I just farted more and then made fun of myself. They told me not to have the gas yet as I probably wasn’t actually feeling that much pain, despite the feeling of my stomach trying to break free and start its own family.

I tried to push through the contractions that were coming every two minutes and lasting for a minute. Then came the sudden urge to poop. I waddled to the toilet and then had to sit on the toilet having a poo while three people were in the room of silence. Have you ever had three people just an earshot from you pooping? It was so uncomfortable.

I waddled back to bed and asked if I could go in the shower. Then I needed to poop again.

Round two. Again, I waddled back to my bed, hunched over in pain and asked if it would be difficult for me to get in the shower for some relief.

"With all the attachments on you, it would be difficult to get you in the shower, but we can if you want to?"

Okay, scrap that idea, I thought. I didn’t want to be a burden. I asked for the gas.

The pain did not go, but my brain was fuzzy enough to not notice it as much. I then just started talking absolute nonsense, trying to make everyone laugh and take the mickey out of myself.

The pain was now unbearable. Relentless. And as soon as I get over one contraction and got a breath, the next one started. I was tired, I had the runs and I was anxious.

I looked at my husband, who knew I needed to have the epidural, despite me telling him not to let me have it. I was an emotional mess, and I needed some relief. The midwives called in the anesthetist and when I asked for their approval once again, they made it quite clear that I wasn’t ever going to make through my labour considering I wasn’t in active labour yet according to their monitor.

I felt defeated. I tried so hard.

Because I had the epidural, it meant that I needed a urinary catheter inserted. Cue two more people looking at my vagina. That brings us to five people in eight hours. I thought for sure I was going to poop everywhere as soon as I was given the epidural because I wouldn’t be able to feel it