Lucy Watson has revealed she was faced with a “life-or-death decision” during her traumatic 15-hour labour.
The former Made In Chelsea star welcomed her first child, a son named Willoughby, with her husband James Dunmore in early March.
The 33-year-old has since shared her birth story in a lengthy video posted on TikTok, in which she discussed the serious complications she faced.
Lucy explained: “I didn’t have a birth plan at all, I was just trusting in my consultant – I thought she was amazing.
“I always said to her from the beginning, whatever is safest, I don’t care what I do. I don’t care if I do pain relief, I don’t care if I do caesarean or vaginal birth, whatever is safest for me and the baby is what I’m happy to do.
“I did say the one thing I really didn’t want was an emergency C-section. I didn’t want to ever be in the position where I was in an emergency scenario. That was my one thing that I really didn’t want.”
Fast forward to her routine 39-week scan, Lucy was told that her baby’s umbilical cord had wrapped itself around his head.
@imlucywatsonmy birth story 👶🏻 so grateful baby boy is here safe and sound 🙏🏼
She was advised to check into hospital the following day, and was told she would have to be induced or have a C-section.
Lucy decided to be induced, and recalled: “They broke my waters, not fun… I was gushing fluid for four hours, and not just a little bit, I was gushing bucket-loads of fluid.
“I don’t even know where it was coming from but every time I moved there would be a gush.”
Fifteen hours into labour, the baby’s head had emerged from her cervix, but was so swollen and unable to make his way out.
“It got to the point where his heart rate was really high. At this point I was exhausted, the alarms were going off in the hospital, in our room, you could tell everyone was really worried,” she said.
“The alarm was going off for a while and they came in and said we need to get him out, he’s not in a good way, he’s in distress. This is a life or death situation and we need to get him out now, we need to do an emergency caesarean.”
Lucy confessed she was “really upset”, and was worried for her son’s life as well as her own.
Praising her “incredible” husband James, she said: “He didn’t leave my side at any point. He was with me and talking to me and comforting me the whole time.”
Lucy described her c-section as “weird”, but said they managed to get her son out in about 10 minutes.
The couple announced they were expecting their first child in September 2023, following a three-year struggle to conceive.
