You Have to See This Viral Video of a Woman Standing Up While Giving Birth to Her Fifth Child

Blake Bakkila
Updated

Giving birth on TV follows a very specific script. There’s a strategically placed sheet covering the lower half of an exhausted mom who pushes and pushes, and then boom! Baby is born.

But in a recently resurfaced video, we see the miracle of childbirth very up close and personal: The soon-to-be mom is standing up and leaning on a bookshelf while delivering her fifth child. It was posted on social media by Flor Cruz, a doula who runs the Instagram account @badassmotherbirther. Cruz gave the mom, Sarah Schmid, a shout-out for her natural home birth.

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“Sarah Schmid gave birth using nothing but her [embedded] instincts, a towel underneath her and a book shelf for support,” Cruz wrote in a post shared last week. That's an apt description. The camera gives viewers a look at the baby’s head as it crowns and comes out, followed by arm, legs, and feet. Schmid then holds her newborn in her arms.

. ???????????????????????????????????????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? . In birth, often then not we have the tendency to complicate rather then simplify. We assume that sophistication equals results, brilliance, performance, and intelligence but it simply does not. . We tend to set the tone of expecting chaos and we add so many things that in the end can make birthing more difficult than it needs to be. Don’t set the mood for fear. . Sarah Schmid gave birth using nothing but her imbedded instincts, a towel underneath her and a book shelf for support. . Nothing complex, difficult, orchestrated, technological, forced, timed, chaotic or mapped out. . Maybe we need to rewind and go back to the basics, the simplicity of birth. . ????LESS MEANS MORE???? . VideoCred: Sarah Schmid Please visit her YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/owakihi . #verticalbirth #standing #simplebirth #freebirth #undisturbedbirth #thatcatchthough #useyourinstincts #backtobasics #childbirth #birth

A post shared by Flor Cruz (@badassmotherbirther) on May 16, 2018 at 1:51pm PDT

Though Cruz posted the clip recently, the original video went on Schmid's YouTube page in January 2017. In it, she called it a “fast birth.”

In a translated document, Schmid described each of her five pregnancies. Here’s what she said about this birth experience.

“I had my first expulsive contraction as the film crew arrived and my waters went," she explained. While leaning on the bookcase for support, she says she "tried not to push wildly with the contractions (though the temptation was most definitely there) but attempted to breathe the baby down a la Hypnobirthing.” (Hypnobirthing is a mind-body technique that has an expectant mom meditate so she can relax during labor and delivery).