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By Daniella Gray
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A U.K. mom who planned to welcome her baby at home ended up fearing for her life after a dramatic labor led to the unimaginable.
Bethany Childs, from southwest England, was expecting her son on June 12, 2026, but her waters broke late on June 7.
She spent the night laboring at home and called the home birth team the following morning.
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Although she had carefully planned for a home birth, she soon realized things were not going as expected.
"I knew it was bad after the midwives checked me for the second time," the 28-year-old told Newsweek. "I'd gone from 2 centimeters dilated to 8 centimeters in less than an hour."
The midwives encouraged her to change positions to help the baby move down the birth canal, but Childs was in "agony."
"All I could think about was if my baby was going to be OK," she said. "I felt like I wasn't handling labor as well as I've seen other women handle it, but I have now come to terms with the fact that actually, it's just different for everybody."
Medical staff later identified that her baby was in a back-to-back position, which can make labor longer and more painful.
As contractions intensified and labor failed to progress, Childs abandoned her original birth plan and begged to be taken to hospital.
An ambulance was called and she was transferred for emergency care, where she received an epidural and was finally able to rest.
Later that evening, her baby boy Billy Paul was born safely.
But the ordeal was not over.
Shortly after the birth, Childs suffered a severe hemorrhage and lost around three times the normal amount of blood.
"After I had my baby and was losing blood, I couldn't hold him as I was being violently sick," she said. "I was shaking really badly and felt like I was in a daze, completely spaced out and didn't know what was going on. All I wanted to do was hold my newborn."
The situation became so serious that emergency staff rushed to her aid. In a post on TikTok, Childs (@bethanyjade10) recalled how she thought she was going to die.
"I still think about the 'what if's' now, and I'm so grateful to the doctors and midwives to still be here with my children," she said.
Childs and her baby Billy Paul were discharged from hospital the following day, but the emotional impact took longer to process.
She had originally chosen a home birth partly because she and her partner Sam also have a 1-year-old child.
While Childs was in labor, he stayed behind to care for their toddler and missed the birth.
"When he came in to meet the baby that night, I broke down in floods of tears, just telling him how scared I'd been," she said. "I wished he could have been there with me."
Childs decided to share her story publicly to give a more realistic picture of childbirth.
"I wanted people to see that homebirth is not always breathing your baby out in a pool with fairy lights and whale music," she said. "Some women don't deal with labor the same as others and need medical intervention, and that's OK. It doesn't make us weak or 'less' because we opted for pain relief."
Despite everything that happened, Childs does not regret planning a home birth.
"I'm glad I tried it," she said. "At first, I was disappointed I couldn't do it at home and my partner didn't get to see the birth of his son, but ultimately, all that matters is that we both were safe and looked after."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Sirena Bergman and Emma Lee-Sang
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