baby

This woman's video of giving birth in the Queensland rainforest has been watched 52 million times.

You might remember Simone Thurber as the Utah woman who gave birth to her fourth child in a stream.

If you don’t, more than 52 million others probably do, as that’s the number of people who’ve watched the video of her labour since she posted it online in 2013.

“After 50 people watched it I thought OMG my friends have seen me really naked, after 500 I was shocked,” she told the Daily Mail.

“To know that more than 52 million people have taken the time to watch me having my now four-year-old daughter Perouze and to get messages from mums and dads thanking me for sharing this intimate birthing experience because it helped them feel less stressed or scared about their birth choice decisions is great.”

You can watch part of the video here (warning: it’s a little graphic):

For most women giving birth in a hospital under an epidural is a terrifying enough prospect, but 43-year-old Simone did it unaided, in a creek in the Australian Daintree Rain Forrest and without a midwife or doctor present.

She described the exerience as the :singular most transforming event of my life”.

The footage, which is more than 20 minutes long, shows the trained doula naked on her hands and knees in the creek bed before she eventually delivers her baby into the waiting arms of her husband Nick.

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Simone Thurber's birth video went viral. Source: Birth in Nature (YouTube)

"I am not a hippy drippy mum but I wanted my fourth child to be born away from beeping machines and a hospital environment. 

"Let’s face it women have been giving birth in the wild for thousands of years but the thought a modern women squatting in a creek and giving birth horrified many people even before I gave birth and shared the video."

Simone said she had always wanted to give birth in the wild and when she fell pregnant again decided the time was right.

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The Thurbers had been living in Melbourne and were offered a house up in the Daintree area of Queensland by a friend, which was her "dream" location.

Simone with her husband and four daughters. Source: Facebook

The labour itself lasted several hours with Simone moving from an outdoor bath at the house down to the creek in the midst of it.

"Nick was filming and he gave the camera to our friend and gave her head and shoulders a nudge and she came out. I immediately grabbed her and put her on my chest.

"The sun was shining, we were in a creek and we had a new baby. It took another two hours to birth the placenta and when we got back to their friends house I ripped a piece off and I had a placenta smoothie."

It wasn't until a year later that she decided to post the video online, never expecting the response she received.

"I didn’t put the video online to make a statement I simply thought a few people would be interested in what it would be like to give birth in nature and to inspire women that if they wanted to they could have a child outside a hospital," she said.

"I felt we had done something amazing and I wanted to share my birth with other women to show them anything is possible. Naturally I would not suggest you try this without talking to doctors and your doula or midwife but as a mum of 3 children already I felt it was the right decision."

You can watch the video in full here.