Meet the Aussie mum planning to live stream her birth on Instagram

There’s been a lot of talk about breaking down birth boundaries of late and revealing the reality of delivering a baby in all its beautiful rawness.

Since earlier this year an entire movement of mothers, midwives and birth photographers have sprung up dedicated to breaking down some of the fear surrounding birth by encouraging women to share their own experiences.

And where better to share those experiences than on social media?

While some of those images, videos and descriptions will likely be removed by the social media bods that be, that likely won’t stop women sharing them.

Women like Jessica Hood.

The soon-to-be mum of four, from Melbourne, has decided to take things one stage further by giving birth live on Instagram.

Having found out she was pregnant with her fourth baby, due in December, Jessica made the brave decision to film the newest member of the family’s arrival into the world.

Jessica says she’s decided to broadcast her upcoming birth live to the world, mainly to raise awareness about mental health issues during pregnancy and motherhood.

“I want to do this to fight my personal battles I’ve been facing,” she wrote for Kidspot.

“I’ve been on and off medication since early 2017 trying to treat my anxiety, I’ve spent three years hiding away from the world and isolating myself from friends and family. I’ve spent so long worrying about what people thought. I’m gonna beat this! I’m done living my life in such a way, this affects everyone in my family.

“So I started an Instagram account to bring awareness to mental health and I made plans to go live in December and film my birth.”

Since starting her Instagram account Jessica has received a whole wave of support from other parents who are welcoming her real and raw take on pregnancy, birth and parenthood.

“Three months into this journey, I have an incredible following and amazing support group. I can feel myself coming out of my shell already. I spend lots of time using my stories to express how I’m feeling and raising awareness,” she wrote.

Though she plans on keeping some aspects of the birth private, such as the actual pushing stage, Jessica says she hopes to share every other part of her labour and delivery.

And she doesn’t regret her decision for a minute saying she is “getting a new lease on life”.

Jessica isn’t the only mum who is opting to share her birth experience on social media.

Charlotte Adams, 28, a Sales Manager for Netmums and her husband Rob Adams, both from Surrey, UK, chose to broadcast her birthing experience to the Netmums Facebook page.

And last May blogger Sarah Cantwell live streamed her birth on Facebook with 62,000 people tuning in to watch her baby daughter enter the world.

“It’s quite crazy how many people were watching. I was only really expecting my friends and maybe some family to tune in,” Sarah said, speaking about the number of viewers who tuned in to watch her birth experience.

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