Jessica Antoniadis secretly hoped the birth of her second child, Peter would be an accidental home birth.
The 28-year-old mother from Sydney has two boys, one is almost two years old now and the other is three months old.
Determined to do things differently after a traumatic 58 hour birth the first time around, Jessica hired a doula and a birth photographer for the birth of second child, Peter.
“When I did go into labour at two o’clock in the morning I just was hanging out by myself in the dark just trying to move things along and about an hour later the contractions were really strong and I was freaking out a little bit because things were happening a lot faster than last time.
WATCH: Women share the one thing no one told them about giving birth. Post continues after video.
“So I got my husband up and called the doula and a few hours later we called Bel, the photographer. When they turned up every contraction was still one to two minutes long and no more than three mintues apart. It was just happening really quick.
“It was a bit weird having all these people in the room just all, you know, I was the centre of attention. That was a bit weird for me.
“I was like ‘oh, wouldn’t be great to have all these people supporting me’ but when it came down to it I was like, ‘oh… hi.’
Jessica, during her second stage of labour. Image courtesy The First Hello Project.
"I was walking around between contractions and I was like, 'Oh do you guys want tea? Do you want something to eat? Do you want the tv on? I don't know what I'm meant to do.'"
Jessica got to the hospital at about 11am and Peter was born four hours later. After her first birth, at 58 hours long Jessica says "this was a breeze".
But what makes Peter's birth story so special is that he was born en caul, a rare birth phenomenon where the baby is born inside his or her amniotic sac.
(As opposed to a straight caul birth, where a baby is born with a piece of membrane covering their head and face; a birth that is even rarer.)
About one in every 80,000 babies will be born en caul, so rare that many midwives and obstetricians will go their entire career without seeing one.
"We thought my waters had broken because I had a little bit of a trickle down my leg," Jessica tells me.
"But when he was crowning my midwife and doula were like, 'Whoa. Hold on. Hang on. He's still in the sac.' They were telling me, 'Don't push!' and I was saying, 'I'm not pushing. My body's just getting him out!' And they were saying, 'No, just hold him there.'"
Top Comments
My 5th child was born en caul. At the time no one told us it was rare. I never got to see my daughter like this, but my hubby did. I just wish someone had told him to take a photo or lifted her up for me to see. It was only when I got back to the ward that midwives started say it was rare. Most of them had never seen one.
As a midwifery student, I was lucky enough to have the first birth I ever witnessed be a baby born en caul! It was so special!
I had a midwifery student named Stephanie help deliver my en caul daughter in Wilmington, DE November 2014, was that you?