Lake Bell opens up about her son’s traumatic home birth
07/22/2019Lake Bell has revealed she went through therapy following the traumatic home birth of her son.
“We had two home births. The first was with [daughter] Nova in Brooklyn. I felt very empowered … The home birth was this amazing primal bonding.” she said on Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert.” “When my daughter came out, she had the [umbilical] cord wrapped around her neck, and it was very scary. She was on my chest and she wasn’t breathing. The midwife gave her three lifesaving breaths on my chest and my husband was there. She came to life and we saw it.”
Because of the “empowering” experience, Bell, 40, decided to do a home birth for her second child, Ozgood.
“I got pregnant again, and this time we’re in L.A. and I said, ‘I want a home birth again,’” she said. “We had him at home. I was huge, he was 11 pounds. The same thing happened, I was at home and he had the cord wrapped around and he was on my chest. He was not coming to.”
She continued, “Now you’re in really f–king life and death. Your child is there and the entire room is trying to resuscitate him and they can’t. The paramedics are on their way, he’s still there. This person you don’t know.”
Bell says the paramedics cut the cord that was still around her baby’s neck and her husband, tattoo artist Scott Campbell, went to the hospital with their son while Bell had to be induced to give birth to her placenta.
“I was looking at my phone as they were sewing me up and I get a little video from Scott: little Ozzy just barely taking breaths with the oxygen mask and I just passed out. Because I was like, ‘He’s alive,’ and then I just passed out,” Bell recalled.
Her son stayed in the NICU for 11 days.
“He was hypoxic, he was without oxygen for longer than the four minutes that is associated with being OK,” she explained. “We were told that he could [have] cerebral palsy or never walk or talk. That was our reality. … Children’s Hospital Los Angeles saved his life.”
While her son survived the scary delivery, the mother of two couldn’t help but feel guilty for deciding to have another home birth.
“I took it on because I insisted on having a home birth. I’ve dealt with that since. You could blame the midwife, you could blame yourself, but ultimately the result is the only thing that matters,” she said. “I’ve gone through therapy and was medicated for a year and a half. I did wean myself off but I was on antidepressants to help kind of regulate. I barely take Advil but I was like, this is absolutely imperative in order for me to function.”
Despite her hardships, the “Bless This Mess” star says her son actually developed earlier than normal.
“I had this incredible little boy who rolled over at two months and walking at nine months as if to say, ‘Mom, I got this. I’m working these milestones early so you can chill the f— out.’” she said.
Bell welcomed Ozzy in June 2017 and Nova in 2014, a year after she married Campbell in 2013.
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