Payne was induced at 38 weeks after it was found her son had stopped growing. While he was deemed healthy, doctors made the call to bring forward Payne's birth date to avoid potential complications.
But 24 hours after initial attempts to induce Payne showed no effect, she was injected with hormones and hooked up to a machine to monitor her contractions.
At this point, she asked for some pain relief and fell to sleep. According to Payne, the machine didn't correctly alert the medical team in time and when they realised that she was ready to give birth, they were concerned she was too relaxed to do so naturally.
While they were considering an emergency C-section, Payne's husband Jonathan began talking to his sleeping wife, encouraging her to start pushing. She reportedly started to respond in her sleep, only waking up for the final 10 minutes of the birth before going back to sleep for another two hours.
"I remember a nurse trying to put Philip in my arms, but I was going to sleep again, only to wake up two hours later to properly meet my son."
Payne says while she's glad to have been spared the pain of labour, she does wish she "had been more present" for the birth of her first child.
"Now when he's older and asks me, I'll have to tell him I nodded off."