A blogger gave birth on the floor of her own bedroom – with an audience of more than 62,000 people watching LIVE on Facebook.
Sarah Cantwell, 28, started streaming on social media at 5am – less than an hour before she had baby Maeve Elizabeth.
The clips show the second-time mum on all fours on her bedroom floor with the midwife behind her while she explains how her waters had broken – before pausing several times as contractions came “thick and fast”.
While her daughter Rosalie, two, slept happily in her bedroom next door, she was blissfully unaware her mum was giving birth to her 7lbs 10oz baby sister.
In a fourth and final video Sarah described giving birth to Maeve live on Facebook as “the most perfect birth – it was everything I wanted”.
A total of 62,500 Facebook users around the globe watched her on videos streamed live on the Channel Mum Facebook page.
Married Sarah, from Didcot, Oxon., said: “When I was in labour with Rosalie I didn’t go to the midwife unit until I was quite far gone, and then I had to wait around while they went through the assessment stage with me,” she said.
“It was much nicer being able to avoid all that this time round – and being at home to introduce Rosalie to her new baby sister by the time she woke up at about 6.30am.
“I wanted to record it for myself anyway, and obviously I didn’t realise beforehand how quick it was going to be, but I was hoping it would show people that you can have a good labour experience.
“It ended up going absolutely perfectly – it was everything I could have wished for.
“We’re thrilled with our new arrival, and grateful to everyone who tuned in to watch our birth.”
Sarah’s waters broke at about 3.30am on Monday and she immediately phoned her midwife, with her contractions starting before she arrived.
In her first video, streamed at 5.10am, she told thousands of viewers: “I’m just letting you know that I’m currently in labour. My waters broke at about 3.30am.”
Viewers then saw her interrupted by a 40-second contraction, before she added: “Contractions are coming thick and fast now, and when they do they are quite intense.”
Her second video, 20 minutes later, showed Sarah calmly enduring two more contractions, as her midwife checked the baby’s heartbeat, allowing viewers to hear.
“It’s half past five in the morning, and contractions are definitely quite intense now. It feels like the baby is crowning,” she said in the video.
Despite being posted just 20 minutes before Maeve was born, Sarah remained in good spirits in this second video, smiling and laughing with her midwife.
A second midwife arrived shortly afterwards, but it was too late for gas and air so she had a natural birth without pain relief.
Sarah said the home birth with hubby Nick, 30, and two midwives, was a much calmer experience than her first birth in a midwife unit.
Despite being congratulated by many viewers on how calm she was throughout the videos, Sarah joked that in reality she was “dying inside”.
The mum-of-two, who runs a family-life blog and YouTube channel called Rosey Home, said: “I was desperate for gas and air but because it all happened so fast, by the time the second midwife got there, there was no time for that.
“It was a completely natural birth, which was horrible at the time, but now I’m really proud of myself for it.
“It was a bit hairy for a while.
“We didn’t wrap her up immediately because we wanted to do skin-to-skin contact, but because of this she got a bit cold.”
“Her temperature dropped to about 35 degrees, so she spent the first hour or so of her life wrapped in two towels with a hot water bottle.
Sarah added that her hind waters – the waters that remain at the back of the baby’s head as the baby moves lower down the pelvis – broke at the same time as Maeve came out, and that Maeve inhaled some of these.
“Her airways were a little bit occluded when she came out because of the hind waters breaking, which basically meant she couldn’t really breathe properly and the midwife had to give her oxygen.
“But the midwives were wonderful.
“They were so calm through the whole thing, and they were brilliant in allowing me to go through it all in the comfort of my own home.
“Rosalie is loving it – she wants to help with everything.”
Sarah had hoped to post more videos, but gave birth sooner than she expected.
Her final videos featured her sat on her bed with smitten dad Nick, revealing the baby’s name and unveiling her to the Facebook world.
