Yael Stone, known for playing Lorna Muccio in the Neftlix hit series Orange Is The New Black, has given a very honest account of her birth story on social media, after her planned home birth ended in an emergency C section.
The mum welcomed her first child in May, and now she's opening up about her birth story which didn't go quite to plan.
Yael had planned an at-home water birth, but after 21 hours of labour, she realised it was time to go to hospital where she had to have an emergency c section. Like many mums who seem their birth plan derail, she admitted she 'felt like a failure' as a result.
Alongside a snap of her in a birthing pool, she wrote: 'When I ventured back onto social media after a long time away I promised myself not to get caught up in the bullshit. I want to be honest, to be raw, to be real.
'So I’m sharing the most vulnerable moment I’ve ever experienced. We lived a lifetime during the birth. We labored at home for 18 hours, hoping to deliver there naturally. The first 10 hours I felt like a warrior, after that something changed. The next 8 hours had me questioning myself, digging deeper than ever before and still not making the progress that our baby needed. I felt like a failure when knew it was time to go to hospital but we were so incredibly lucky to have that as an option.'
She continued her story in the caption of another picture, this time of her in a hospital bed: 'By hour 21 of labor I was being rushed off for an emergency C section. When our beautiful daughter arrived she needed help to breathe and I needed help stay conscious. Without modern medicine and the expertise of the doctors and nurses our baby would not be here, I would not be here. Our birth experience was not what I’d wanted for but I know how lucky I am to hold my baby and feel her heart beating next to mine. I wrestle with what to do with this experience, it will take time to make peace with it.
The mum continued to say that she was lucky to be close to a hospital where she was able to safely welcome her baby, a privilege that women in other parts of the world don't have, and said she would be donating to Aminate foundation - who help pregnant women and mothers in Sierra Leone.
'In searching for the positive I learned about the @aminatafoundation who are saving mothers and babies in Sierra Leone where you are 200 times more likely to die giving birth than in Australia, where I was lucky enough to give birth', she added. 'I’m grateful to Aminata and part of my healing will be making a donation.'
