My Portland experience

Television presenter Emma Forbes had both her children, Lily and Sam, at the Portland Hospital. "I felt fantastically well throughout my first pregnancy, but then at 37 weeks I began to have stomach pains, which seemed to trigger an early labour. My contractions kept stopping and starting, and I began to feel very tired and ill, so my consultant decided it would be safer for me and the baby to induce my labour.

Lily was 6lb 7oz, so although she was early, she wasn't too tiny. I was in labour for 36 hours and it felt like days, but I had the most wonderful midwife, who stayed with me throughout my labour, even though her shift was over. I had always known that I wanted to have pain relief - I couldn't see what going through unnecessary pain was going to achieve - and one of the nice things about being able to afford to go private was that I didn't have to wait around for an epidural.

After Lily was born, I stayed in the Portland for eight days. I was feeling very poorly and I wanted to recuperate from whatever it was that had given me stomach pains. Also, I just loved it there. I became totally institutionalised and actually cried when I left. The nurses were brilliant at looking after Lily and gave me enormous confidence about how to handle her - when you first have a baby it seems so fragile you've got no idea how to hold them. There isn't a manual for new mothers, after all. There was also no pressure to breastfeed if you didn't want to - I had made the decision to bottlefeed and I felt completely supported in that. In fact, it was the NHS midwife who visited me at home afterwards who made me feel unbelievably awful.

The nurses in the nursery at the Portland had also told me I could ring up for advice at any time. I think they might have regretted it later, because for the first year of Lily's life I rang at all times of the day or night, to the point where I'd just have to say hello, and they'd say: "Emma, what have you done with her now?"

Two-and-a-half years later I went back to have Sam. I'd felt quite ill during my pregnancy and had come in three times for bedrest - it was lovely to be looked after. This time I had a very easy labour. The wonderful thing was that every time I'd been in, I'd said to the midwife who had delivered Lily, "Oh, I do hope you're on duty when I have this one." And she'd looked on the rota and seen I was in, and she came in specially on her day off to be with me. It really meant the world to me. I told her I wanted her to come and live with me, with her husband and children if necessary.