New mom Rumer Willis is opening up about the arrival of baby daughter Louetta, whom she and partner Derek Richard Thomas welcomed back in April.
Appearing on the “Informed Pregnancy” podcast, Willis discussed her home birth with the assistance of a doula, Thomas, mom Demi Moore, and siblings Tallulah Willis and Scout LaRue Willis.
As Willis recalled (via People), she “dilated from two to eight inches in about an hour,” and moved into the bathtub feeling the urge to push. One problem arose: her water hadn’t yet broken.
“She was checking me and felt my water bag bulging, but still not popping, which was wild. And so, I was like, ‘Well, should we break it?'” Willis shared.
“‘She goes, ‘Well, you can.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?'” she continued.
So Willis took matters into her own hands — literally. “I reached my finger up there, and I’m feeling and it was crazy. I could totally feel this little bag — it feels like a water balloon, but with a bit tougher skin,” she recounted.
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“She just said, ‘Okay. On the next contraction, just push against it with your finger,’ and I popped it. I think there’s a photo of me and I just have this look of shock and surprise on my face. Because it’s a different sensation when the water bag is pushing against your cervix to when the baby’s head is,” she added.
After breaking her water, things progressed quickly.
“It was like I pushed a little bit. Like, I pushed — 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. I pushed again and her whole body was out. There was no pause. There was no pause in between. It wasn’t one of those moments where it was, ‘Oh, your head is out,'” she said.
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“My midwife and my partner caught her. It was the wildest thing. She had a cord wrapped around her neck, but it was also wrapped around her body in like almost like a prom sash,” she continued.
“We had four hands under there, under the birth stool. I’m going, ‘Give me the baby. Give the baby.’ But then, as soon as they untangled her, she was in my arms,” she said, describing “the most ecstatic, joyful moment of my entire life,” Willis said.
“I just started sobbing with joy. I have some of the most beautiful photographs of it of just me looking at her, and looking at my sisters, and looking at my mom and my mom holding me. My sister actually told me something later that I didn’t even realize I said. I looked at Louetta at one point, and I said, ‘I missed you so much.’ I thought that was so sweet because it truly was like this moment of, ‘Oh, yes! We’re back together,'” she added. “It’s like, ‘Oh, yes. This person who I’ve known and I’ve been waiting for forever, here you are.'”
