Paula Lane’s baby daughter was born in a pop-up birthing pool in her living room in West Yorkshire.
The former ‘Coronation Street’ actress was initially planning to welcome Penny Grace Shaw – her second child with her husband Tom Shaw – into the world in hospital but changed her mind at the last minute after looking deeper into hypnobirthing.
Speaking to OK! magazine, she said: "I had her in a birthing pool in the living room … Penny just arrived. The midwives said, ‘Look, your baby is there in the water.’ I looked and there she was with her eyes open, just swimming in the water.
"They told me to lift her up and she took her first breath. When babies are born they have a diver’s reflex. It’s only when she was out of the water tat she took her first breath."
The 30-year-old actress then spent a hour in the pool with her newborn while she waited to deliver the placenta.
She said: "I had what is called a golden hour, where I stayed in the pool and waited for the afterbirth to arrive. Penny was able to feed."
Although her labour was stress-free, doctors were initially keen to induce Paula as Penny was over her due date.
But the brunette beauty refused the help and, on reflection, is glad she did as little Penny was born six days later on July 27.
She explained: "I had to have some monitoring as they thought she was small but it turned out she wasn’t at all. They actually wanted me to be induced. If there had been a specific medical reason, I would have gone for it but everything like the Doppler scans were fine."
Meanwhile, Penny’s birth was somewhat different from her 18-month-old son Arthur’s arrival as, although he was also born at home, Paula was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment after losing blood during his delivery.
Paula Lane’s daughter was born in pop-up pool at home
