The actress just opened up about the experience to her Bless this Mess costar Dax Shepard on his podcast, Armchair Expert. “We had two home births. The first was with [daughter] Nova in Brooklyn. I felt very empowered," she told Dax. "The home birth was this amazing primal bonding.”
Lake, Scott, and her midwife worked together to bring her daughter safely into the world after she was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. "The midwife gave her three lifesaving breaths on my chest and my husband was there," Lake shared. "She came to life and we saw it.”
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Lake opted for a home birth again with her second pregnancy, but her experience with Ozgood did not go as smoothly. "I was huge, he was 11 pounds," Lake said. "The same thing happened, I was at home and he had the cord wrapped around and he was on my chest. He was not coming to.”
“Now you’re in really f***king life and death," Lake added. "Your child is there and the entire room is trying to resuscitate him and they can’t. The paramedics are on their way, he’s still there. This person you don’t know.”
Her son was rushed to the hospital. Lake had to remain at home to give birth to the placenta, while her husband Scott accompanied their son and shared updates. “I was looking at my phone as they were sewing me up and I get a little video from Scott: little Ozzy just barely taking breaths with the oxygen mask and I just passed out. Because I was like, ‘He’s alive,’ and then I just passed out."
Her son Ozgood is healthy now, but Lake felt responsible for what happened to him. “I took it on because I insisted on having a home birth," she says. "I’ve dealt with that since. You could blame the midwife, you could blame yourself, but ultimately the result is the only thing that matters."
While in Australia, women have the fundamental right to choose where and with whom they give birth, in the United States home births are not recommended, per ACOG —mainly because they're just not part of the norm. In fact, multiple ob-gyns criticised Meghan Markle for her at-home birth plan because of her age and high-risk pregnancy, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Lake's ordeal continued long after her home birth. "I’ve gone through therapy and was medicated for a year and a half. I did wean myself off but I was on antidepressants to help kind of regulate," she said. "I barely take Advil but I was like, this is absolutely imperative in order for me to function.”
This article originally appeared on Women's Health US.
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