Natasha Downing was planning to deliver her baby at a birthing center but her unborn child just couldn’t wait.
Instead, Downing gave birth on her front porch, with the delivery captured on her doorbell camera.
Downing, 34, was experiencing contractions every 30 seconds Aug. 22 at her home in Calabasas and was planning to go with her midwife to the birthing center when she realized that she was not going to make it.
Natasha Downing gave birth on her front porch when she realized she would not be able to make it to the birthing center.
(Courtesy of Natasha Downing)
She was on her way out the front door when her water broke.
“The baby was coming now,” Downing said. “We stop and I say, ‘Wait’ and it’s because I’m feeling [the baby] come down. I walk a little bit out the pathway. My water breaks. My husband sees her head halfway out.”
Downing said her body did the rest. She barely even had to push.
“My body pushed the baby out completely on its own,” she said.
Downing lay down, first on her side, then on her back and with one push, out came a healthy 10-pound girl, which they named Lilybella. She was blue and didn’t seem to be breathing at first while she was still connected to the placenta, which Downing said is normal. But with no medical professional available, she and her husband were scared for a few moments before Lilybella began to breathe normally.
The whole birth was captured on the Downings’ doorbell camera, which shows her squatting and delivering the newborn next to the suitcase and bag her husband had packed for her for the birthing center.
“While I was running around just in total chaos, she was so calm,” said her husband Tom Downing. “I witnessed this wave come over her that was so calm and in control. It was really amazing to see. I saw it in her eyes.”
The midwife and paramedics arrived shortly to make sure the mother and child were okay.
Downing said she felt no panic throughout the ordeal.
“It didn’t faze me [being on the porch]. I knew where I was. I felt very prepared going into birth. I feel birth is very natural. You get to your front porch and the baby is coming out,” she said.
Walking out of her house will never feel the same, Downing said.
“Every time we walk out the door there’s something special about the area. There’s a little water stain where all my fluids came out,” she said. “It is a little bit magical every time we leave the house now.”