Jamie Otis Shares More Details of Baby Hayes' Home Birth (& Sweet Pics!)

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Jamie Otis knows a thing or two about sharing all of the parts of her life — joyous, emotional, and everything in between — with us. The Married at First Sight star and her husband, Doug Hehner, have dutifully been chronicling her second pregnancy on Instagram, up to and including the “eviction notice” she gave that ultimately led to the home birth that brought son Hayes Douglas into the world on May 13. Now, the reality star is reflecting on the challenges of labor during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as sharing gratitude for everything her body is doing to keep her and her family healthy.

On May 16, Otis posted new photos of Hayes — and his big sister, Henley Grace — to Instagram. With Hayes in her arms, and her girl hugging her legs, she seems as content as can be, but she’s also not going to sugarcoat all of the side-effects of pregnancy and the fourth trimester.

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“It’s wild to think just 3 days ago his whole body was INSIDE my belly,” she wrote in the caption. “It is so amazing what a woman’s body can do! I mean, us women get one little sperm from a man & then we proceed to grow a tiny HUMAN inside us! …don’t even get me started on how strong we are to birth that tiny human — whether he’s pushed out or cut out, medicated or unmedicated — we are freakin superheroes!”

The mother of two, who opted for a home birth with a doula and a midwife given the understandable safety precautions many hospitals are taking to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, also shared what her experience entailed: She says she felt like a “bad-azz super mama” during the process of the tub birth, which took place in her bedroom. (Hehner shared photos on his own Instagram shortly after Hayes was born.)

But Otis is also being super candid about all of the highs and emotional lows of the fourth trimester — i.e., the hormonal swing that occurs when your body kicks in to now help keep baby alive outside of your body. (For the record, she thinks it’s “the hardest trimester… physically, mentally, & emotionally.”) As the star wrote, shortly after she crawled into bed with Hayes on her chest, her “adrenaline soon ran out!😭 My vagina’s on fire, my butt feels like it exploded, and my nipples are back to being cracked and bleeding from nursing,” — a surprising side-effect, since she admits she “didn’t really expect this one since I nursed Gracie for a full year).”

“Still, I wouldn’t change *any* of this journey,” she added. “I feel so BLESSED to get to be a mommy again.”

Otis and Hehner, who also host the podcast Hot Marriage, Cool Parents, welcomed Gracie in 2017; her first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 2016. A chemical pregnancy followed in 2018, and Otis experienced another miscarriage in 2019. She previously called Hayes “truly an answered prayer for us.”

Before you go, check out all of the other celebrities who chose home birth, too:

Launch Gallery: Jamie Otis, Ashley Graham & More Celebs Who Chose Home Birth

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