A mum-of-four has shared incredible footage of herself freebirthing her baby in the Pacific Ocean.

Josy Peukert birthed her baby boy Bodhi Amor Ocean in the lapping waves of the foreshore at Playa Majagual, Nicaragua in February this year. She explained on her Instagram account that she’d been researching the ocean tides for weeks before the birth.

“Every day for weeks I’ve been researching the current water level of the Pacific Ocean down the street from us. When is the water highest and when is it lowest, at any hour and all temperatures, I have everything in view. For weeks there has been a woven basket in the car with all the utensils if the time comes.”

She explained that her births had been getting progressively shorter with each child, so she had a feeling that her fourth baby would be born in an hour. And once she knew she was in labour, she and her husband Benni Cornelius drove to the beach for the unassisted birth.

“I walk a few meters through the warm, soft sand halfway behind you and hold on to your shoulder. It’s 11 o’clock now. Arrived at the end of the path as so often and now perfect, an almost deserted beach. We walk to the edge where the beach changes from dry to wet, put our things down and immediately run into the water.”

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Josy’s video shows her breathing through her contractions in the water, before she births her baby. She smiles and grips him tightly, the umbilical cord still attached as waves continue to lap around the pair.

While most of the comments on Josy’s video are supportive, some are concerned about the hygiene aspects of birthing in the ocean.

“Is this sanitary? There’s a lot of bacteria in the sea,” asked one follower.

“What a shock for that bubba — from a warm womb to the cold ocean,” commented another.

But Josy explained, “He is perfectly healthy. I did all the research I needed to to make sure it was safe. Water is a barrier that is medically proven.”

In 2016 Simone Thurber attracted worldwide attention after freebirthing in a creek. The trained doula and birthing therapist gave birth in the Australian Daintree Rainforest, and was criticised by some for her decision.

“I am not a hippy drippy mum but I wanted my fourth child to be born away from beeping machines and a hospital environment,” she said at the time.

“Let’s face it women have been giving birth in the wild for thousands of years but the thought a modern women squatting in a creek and giving birth horrified many people even before I gave birth and shared the video.”

Freebirthing in Australia

According to Pregnancy, Birth & Baby about 97% of all births in Australia happen in a hospital. That other three per cent is made up of mums who either had their babies before they could make it to hospital, home births with a midwife or freebirths.

The difference between home birth and freebirth is that a trained professional like a midwife is at a home birth. A freebirth has no medical professional present.

The general consensus among health professionals is that freebirth increases the risk of things going wrong for mum and baby. There could be undetected or undiagnosed conditions, or an emergency during the birth. The risks to the mum include bleeding during or after birth, high blood pressure, retained placenta and infection. For the baby it could be a cord prolapse or changes to a baby’s heart rate.

Anyone who is considering a freebirth is advised to research the risks and speak to a medical professional, still take birthing classes and encouraged to hire a doula.

What do you think of this incredible birth? Let us know in the comments below.

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