DIARY OF A BIRTH: ‘I felt an intense pain in the shower. When I looked down, I saw my baby's head.'

Giving birth is a team sport. You need your support system, people to bring water and snacks, hold your hand and, of course, the dedicated punching bag.

But imagine giving birth alone. In the shower. Just you, those contractions and the urge to push.

For mum-of-two Kate, that was her unexpected reality.

Listen to Kate's birth story with Jesse on Diary of a Birth. Post continues below.

Before welcoming her second child, Kate was leading a busy life in Melbourne with her three-year-old daughter Henny and a full-time job.

"My daughter's birth was relatively straightforward," Kate told Mamamia's Diary of a Birth podcast.

"My waters broke, but I didn't go into labour, so I did take myself off to hospital on the tram. They monitored me for about a day or so, but then ended up inducing me."

That first delivery took just three hours, and Kate managed without pain medication, guided by a personal mantra: "Labour pain is healthy pain."

Despite getting through the newborn phase and thinking, "I'm never doing this again", Kate soon found herself wanting another baby when her daughter turned one.

Her second pregnancy with Jesse was also straightforward, with the only concern being that she didn't feel him moving as much as expected.

"I think about three times throughout that pregnancy, I did take myself off to hospital, just being paranoid and asking them to check everything was okay," Kate said.

The exhaustion of being pregnant with a toddler was like nothing else. "I think worse than being pregnant", Kate added.

Watch the trailer for Diary of a Birth. Post continues below.

When birth plans change in minutes.

With Henny, Kate initially wrote out a birth plan. But when Henny's birth ended up being induced, she went "with the flow".

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For Jesse, the plan was more stripped back. But it would, at the very least, take place in a hospital.

"My partner was going to be there. My best friend, who's also a doula, was going to be there. And my mum was going to stay home and look after Henny," Kate said.

Of course, Jesse had other plans.

On the day he arrived, Kate had actually just returned home from an overnight hospital stay where she'd been monitored for Jesse's reduced movement. Everything had checked out fine, and she was sent home.

While walking to pick up her daughter from daycare, she suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"I was like, 'I feel like I'm going to wet my pants. I don't think today is the day I need to be walking to pick her up,'" Kate recalled.

After messaging her partner to handle pickup instead, she returned home where her waters broke. Kate called the hospital and was told labour would likely be hours away. There was no need to worry.

So, she didn't. A cool, calm and collected Kate messaged her partner, mum, and best friend that they had plenty of time.

She even sent a casual message to two mums who lived downstairs: "Hey, waters are broken. Like, see you on the other side."

What happened next unfolded with startling speed.

Newborn baby Jesse curled up on mum's chest. Image: Supplied.

An unexpected solo delivery.

Kate decided to take a shower to clean up, bringing her phone with a contraction timing app.

Having been induced with her first child, she wasn't sure what natural labour contractions would feel like.

"I was feeling just like a little bit period-painy, but nothing to what I thought was a contraction," she said. "Then it did start getting quite painful. I thought, 'Oh God, if this is early labour, I think I probably will need some drugs this time, because it's really hurting.'"

"I got to a point in the shower where I was in so much pain that I got down on all fours, and then looked down and his whole head was out."

Alone but remarkably composed, she managed to text her downstairs neighbours: "Help" followed by "head out," though she laughed that most of her panicked typing came out as dollar signs and gibberish.

Kate texted her neighbours, Georgia and Ellie to come help. Image: Supplied.

By the time her neighbours Georgia and Ellie rushed in, Jesse was completely delivered and Kate was holding him in her arms, still in the shower, with the umbilical cord attached and placenta undelivered.

"Georgia retells it quite funny, that I just looked up at her and was like, 'Do you think we should call an ambulance?'" Kate said.

The response was immediate. Georgia, who happened to be a doula, wrapped Kate and baby in towels and helped them to bed while Ellie called emergency services. The ambulance arrived quickly, and within about 20 minutes, Kate's partner, mum, and best friend all arrived — just missing the dramatic delivery.

"I think because everything was totally okay with him and me, I didn't even have time to really feel scared," Kate said. "It was just all fine and done."

Kate was transported to the hospital where she delivered the placenta and was monitored for elevated blood pressure, likely caused by the shock of the experience. Despite the dramatic circumstances, both mother and baby were perfectly healthy.

Kate and Jesse were both perfectly healthy after birth. Image: Supplied.

Five years later, Kate looks back on her shower birth with gratitude rather than trauma.

"I feel like while I was pregnant, it was just a lot of horror stories about how painful birth can be," Kate said. "But I guess I just want people to know that birth doesn't have to be that bad, like it doesn't have to be really, really painful, and you shouldn't be scared."

Today, Jesse knows he's the "cheeky shower baby," a story he's grown to appreciate as he's gotten older.

And Kate's extraordinary experience stands as a reminder that sometimes, even in the most unexpected circumstances, our bodies know exactly what to do.

Feature image: Supplied.