Iskra Lawrence and her boyfriend Philip Payne celebrated their baby boy's first birthday on April 16, 2021, with an intimate birthday party. The doting mother shared snaps of the celebrations on her Instagram almost a week later.
But this was not the first time the fans bore witness to the absolutely adorable toddler. In fact, the model made it a point to update her fans on every step of her parenthood journey, including childbirth.
Lawrence Kept Fans in the Loop
After taking some time to recover both physically and mentally, the mother-of-one began sharing her perspective on delivering her baby boy at home through a vlog on her YouTube channel. However, she had kept fans in the loop about the pregnancy from long before.
While the model acknowledged that a home birth might be the safer route considering the ongoing pandemic, she had planned for a home birth regardless of the state of the world.
Lawrence also made it a point to share the bright side of delivering a baby at home and also gave fans a peek into the scarier parts of it all. She described the experience as the most intense pain of her entire life whilst still being the best day in the couple's lives.
She Endured 12 Hours of Contractions
During childbirth, the first-time mom endured twelve hours of contractions that were a lot more painful than she had anticipated. In the YouTube update, she said,
I imagined the ring of fire, when the baby is crowning. I imagined, 'Oh, that's the really painful bit.' But no — for me the contractions were worse, in a way, because they just felt never-ending.
As the contractions took hold, Lawrence experienced a host of uncomfortable side effects like vomiting and diarrhea before her water broke. She then immediately got into the home birthing tub they had on standby. Payne and her parents stayed with her throughout the entire process.
A Painful Yet Magical Experience
However, the pain was far from over. As Lawrence was pushing through labor, her midwife, Ellie, noticed that her cervix hadn't dilated past 7 centimeters. So, the midwife had to pull it further manually to let the baby's head emerge.
The birthing process defied her expectations once again because Lawrence thought that once the head was out, the baby would come out rather easily. But no! Instead, Ellie "yanked" him out.
To the couple's terror, the baby did not breathe for the first couple of seconds. Lawrence recalled,
When you look back and you just see a lifeless, blue body ... that was really scary.
Thankfully, all went well, and the confident midwife took care of the situation. The couple was relieved once they heard the baby breathed his first cry.
The new mother also shared stills of the magical moment on her Instagram that framed her nude in her birthing tub.
In the hopes of helping others planning a home water birth, Lawrence shared all of her plans via YouTube, and in the description box, she gave out links to everything they bought for the process.
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