A MOTHER-of-three who live streamed her unassisted home water birth from her bath captured the calm moment she delivered her daughter just 35 minutes in.
Kara Baker, 28, from Missouri, USA, who already has three children under four, told of her decision to go for a natural labour after suffering trauma at the birth of her first child.
Kara Baker
Rather than check in to the labour ward, the full time carer prepared to give birth with only husband Bryce, 38, and children Brylie, 4, Barrett, 3, and Ash, 1, by her side.
Kara was left so terrified by her first experience and horrified by the $40k (£30.5) medical bills, she decided to avoid hospitals and birth centres, using only her bath instead.
Keen to be in total control of the birth of her fourth child, and armed with the experience of giving birth three previous times, she even planned to live stream the water birth on her own YouTube channel.
Wanting to break the taboo around home births, Kara shared the moment little girl Molly Fay Baker entered the world on March 23 2019 with hundreds of followers watching on.
Kara Baker
Recalling the birth of her first child, which she described as a ‘horrible experience’, she claims that not only did nurses rack up the bill unnecessarily, but refused skin-to-skin with her newborn.
She told Femail: “There was no doctor to deliver my baby, only nurses. They did not practice delayed cord clamping or skin to skin and I was discouraged from breastfeeding.”
Kara’s second child was therefore born at a birth centre two and a half hours away from their home, where she gave birth naturally in a water bath.
Preparing herself for the next birth, Kara tried to eliminate all her fears by watching YouTube videos of other women in an attempt to pick up tips.
Kara Baker
Kara Baker
She added: “I became obsessed with watching videos of women giving birth – I watched them daily and began to see patterns. You could see the moment women let go of their fear and deliver their child.”
So by the time youngest child Ash came along, Kara was so confident that she was shopping right up until an hour before she gave birth at the same birth centre in St Louis.
“The midwife and nurse said it was the most graceful birth they had seen,” she said. “I had no fear at all so I had no pain.”
Falling pregnant with her fourth child, a video of a woman giving birth unassisted with her husband and children present inspired Kara to also give it a go.
Kara Baker
Kara Baker
She added: “I want to change people’s perception of birth. It is not a medical event, should not be feared and does not have to be painful. Giving birth is what we are designed to do. It truly is a gift.”
In preparation for the birth, the mother chose to nourish her body with organic foods, stay away from any toxins and try to remain as stress-free as possible.
And when the time came, Kara was even in control of clamping the umbilical cord after delivery of her placenta, a practice said to give the baby more blood, stem cells and immune cells.
She also decided when to first breastfeed the baby after labour and how much skin-to-skin contact she and her husband could have, and all from the comfort of her bath tub.
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