New mom Rumer Willis reveals she broke her own water giving birth: 'I popped it'

Rumer Willis is opening up about her birth story – including that she broke her own water.

The 34-year-old actress, who is daughter to Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, welcomed a baby girl named Louetta Isley Thomas Willis on April 18 at home, she shared on her Instagram in April.

She told Los Angeles-based parental chiropractor Elliott Berlin on Monday's episode of "Informed Pregnancy Podcast" that when she was having going into labor, her doula, Lori Bregman, her mother, her sisters and her partner, Derek Richard Thomas, all came to her house, as did her midwife. After a night of contractions, things started to get more intense.

During a lengthy discussion covering the hours leading up to her birth, Willis shared that she would feel like she needed to push but her water was still intact.

Her midwife had a solution.

"She was checking me and felt my water bag bulging, but still not popping, which was wild," Rumer recalled. "So, I was like, 'Well, should we break it?' She goes, 'Well, you can.' I'm like, 'What?' I was like, 'Are you serious?'"

She described the water bag as what felt like a "water balloon" with "tougher" exterior.

"And so yeah, she just said 'OK on the next contraction just push against it with your finger,'" she said. "And I popped it."

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When your water breaks — which is when amniotic fluid that the baby grows in inside the uterus is released through the vagina — it typically means that labor is coming, though for many people labor begins with contractions before their water breaks.

Monique Rainford, a Yale Medicine obstetrician-gynecologist and assistant professor of clinical obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, tells USA TODAY that doctors do not recommend breaking your own water at home if it doesn't break spontaneously.

The concern from an obstetric viewpoint is that by breaking your water with your own finger, you could be introducing additional bacteria. "It doesn't mean that something would go wrong, but (you don't want) to introduce excess bacteria," Rainford says.

When Rainford or another doctor need to break a patient's water, they carry out the breaking with a sterilized plastic hook.

Willis said the remainder of the birthing process went quickly after the self-induced water breaking.

"It was like, I pushed a little bit… well, I didn't push a little bit, I pushed harder than I've ever probably, but it was literally like I pushed, her head was out," Willis described, "I pushed again and her whole body was out."

Her midwife and Thomas caught the baby who was wrapped in her umbilical cord. Once she was untangled, Willis was able to hold her baby for the first time.

"It was the most ecstatic, joyful moment of my entire life and I just started sobbing with joy," she said, adding later that her time as a mother so far has been the "greatest gift of my life."

Willis and Thomas announced they were expecting a child together in an Instagram post last December, sharing a series of black-and-white photos that confirmed her pregnancy. Several selfies put the baby bump on display, including snaps of Thomas kissing Willis’ belly.

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Contributing: Edward Segarra, Jenna Ryu

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rumer Willis says she broke her own water giving birth to daughter