A doorbell camera in California captured the incredible moment when a mother, Natasha Downing, gave birth right outside her home after her water broke unexpectedly. Downing, who was 39 weeks pregnant, was on her way to the hospital when the sudden event occurred.
At 34 years old, Downing was about to leave her house in Calabasas with her suitcase when intense pain stopped her. Recalling the moment, she said, “I’m walking down the stairs and I feel my baby coming. I had to squat down outside and then my waters break. I knew I wasn’t making it to the birthing center.”
As she called for nitrous oxide for pain relief, her husband Tom told her the baby was already “poking out.”
Downing described the experience, saying, “I got into the squat and I just breathed, like, I just did not push at all, and her head cleared on her own.” Her husband noticed the baby’s head was out but she wasn’t fully delivered yet. Feeling the baby pushing backward, Downing changed her position by lying on her side with her leg raised.
“I was on call with my midwife, and I knew I had to push to clear her shoulders,” she added. With just one push, the baby was delivered safely.
After the birth, Downing’s husband captured a video of her lying near their doorway, cradling their newborn daughter, Lilybella. Reflecting on the experience, Downing said, “She was perfectly healthy, it was everything I had ever dreamed of. It sounds like it would be a traumatic birth, but it was very healing and really amazing.”
The doorbell footage of the event was edited to exclude the actual birth, but it showed Downing clinging to her husband, hunched over beside her suitcase, as she brought their baby into the world right in front of their home.
