Mamamia Out Loud: Emergency Meeting: Jessie Had A Baby

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Mamma Mia Out Loud!

Hello and welcome Out Louders. A lot of you are probably aware that on the 2nd of July,

Jesse Stevens, the regular co-host of Out Loud, gave birth to her little baby girl, Luna.

I was in hospital with Jesse last night and I said, Jesse, I understand.

You're trying to breastfeed, you're sleep deprived, you just birthed a human.

But the Out Louders be waiting just to hear something.

They've got needs. They've got expectations.

And Jesse said, absolutely, I've been waiting to speak to the Out Louders directly about my birth.

I mean, she wanted to in labour, but you know, she was distracted.

So we recorded a voice note and I thought I'd play it for you guys.

Hello. Oh, can you hear that?

She's made a podcast debut.

She's made a podcast debut. They had little oinks.

She's winking like a guinea pig, little Luna.

Luna was born on Sunday and we are both doing very, very well.

She is perfection. She has been very happy in hospital.

We should be going home soon and we missed the Out Louders

and we just wanted the Out Louders to know that little Luna came on the 2nd of July,

three hours before her due date, but she did take her time coming out.

It was a marathon labour. I cannot wait to tell the Out Louders all of the details.

I've interviewed so many women about their birth stories.

I'm obsessed with birth stories and how the hell you still end up having a birth story

that is unlike anything you expected is wild to me.

I am now a proud ambassador of the epidural.

I'm going to reach out to them, see if they want to do some partnership,

maybe sponsor Out Loud indefinitely because I can talk about them all day.

But look, enough about the epidural and more about perfect Luna.

She is perfection. She is just perfection.

I haven't really slept, so I'm rambling, but love you Out Louders.

Thank you so much for all your lovely messages and congratulations.

We are very, very happy. Can't wait to tell you more.

Obviously, Jesse's story is her story to tell.

So we're not going to try and tell that today and also we weren't there.

Well, you were there for some of it.

So what we're going to do today is give you our birth experience of Jesse's.

So, Elfie, feel free to ask any questions if things aren't clear,

but it all started on Friday morning.

I woke up to a few messages because Jesse had started getting pains at about 1 a.m.

And so I was speaking to her in the morning and it was an Out Loud day.

And she was very aware that she didn't want to tell people in case it was

Braxton Hicks in case it wasn't anything or in case it went for days and days and days.

And then, you know, you feel bad because you don't have an update.

There's something with the first baby as well that you don't think that it's it.

Because you don't know what to expect.

And so you're like, is this it? Is this not it? I don't know.

Is it a false alarm?

So she started getting these contractions and I was on the phone to her very early Friday morning

and she was kind of timing them and just giving me moment by moment updates.

She said it's a lot like period pain, but she had done a lot of kind of calm birth stuff,

all her affirmations, something to know about Jesse.

And the Out Louders will be surprised by this is that she went full woo-woo in the lead up to her birth,

which is very anti-Jesse.

She usually just does that at the end of the year when she starts listening to Oprah's podcast in December.

What else was she doing that was woo-woo?

She had a bath every night and said affirmations.

So her affirmations were things like, my contractions cannot be bigger than me because they are me.

I am having this experience with my baby, like I'm giving birth with my baby.

We are in this together.

She's a hippie that advocates for epidurals.

It's not the cynical Jesse that we know and love.

Then kind of, you know, intensify, she goes to hospital, gets her epidural.

So then I come to hospital.

Jesse and I would just talk and shit for hours because it was clear that this was very slow.

You know, I'm just on Instagram giving an update.

It's like, what's going on?

Meanwhile, I went and got a fringe.

Yeah, you went and got a fringe.

You went and got a haircut when she went into labor.

In my defense, I had one booked already.

It was my regular, you know, trim and root touch up.

And as I was sitting there, because I'd known that she'd been in labor for a while and I had no role,

I had no job to do.

As everyone knows, getting a fringe is not about the fringe.

It's about having big feelings and I had big feelings.

I have to say getting that in my inbox when Jesse was in labor.

I was like, there's never been a more me or thing than like something's going on.

I got a fringe.

And then I was also like worried, oh my God, does it look like I'm pulling focus?

Does it look like I want attention?

And it's not.

It's just because I panicked and I didn't know what to do.

And now I have a fringe.

And now I have a fringe.

So I was in the hospital and then they said it'd be a few more hours until they kind of checked everything again.

So mum and dad were kind of hanging around the hospital.

So the three of us went to get dinner.

I was at dinner and I felt weird.

I felt weird.

There was something.

There was like adrenaline.

I had a bit of an upset.

Tell me I didn't eat.

Was it the gas that you were having in the room?

The doctor's like, that's why we don't give gas because we aren't giving birth.

Claire took the gas to dinner.

I just had the gas machine.

But I had a bit of like anyone who knows me, I would never go to dinner and not eat, but I didn't eat.

I was too nervous.

And then got a message from Luca saying it's happening.

So it had been agreed that you wouldn't be in the room for the birth.

That was going to be just a Luca, Jesse thing.

It was controversial though because you wanted to be there and you were sadly cast out.

Would you theoretically have been allowed in?

Yes.

I believe so.

You can have a number of people in now that it's not COVID anymore.

Yeah.

I believe so.

And so my idea was hiding a cupboard.

Hide behind a curtain.

Yeah.

You're very small.

You could have done that.

And then just pop out and you're like, I'm here.

I thought, because when I got to the hospital, no one else was there.

It was Sunday night.

Coco and I arrived together.

No, actually, we arrived separately because she had a party to go to.

She was like, what time's the baby coming?

Because she's so excited.

She's like, what if I need to come to the hospital?

And I went, look, the party's quite close to the hospital.

I'm going to head in just because I feel the need to.

On my way to the hospital, I get a call from Luca going, she's fully dilated because I

was kind of psyching myself up.

It had been going for so long.

She was not dilating very fast.

I was worried that it was going to end in a caesarean.

Not that there's anything wrong with caesareans, but I think everyone can agree.

If you have to go through a full, long labor and major surgery, that's kind of the worst

of both worlds.

And it's unfair.

And it's too much for a lazy girl.

So I was literally just close when I got that she's 10 centimetres, which if you're

not familiar with childbirth is the amount that your cervix needs to be dilated when

it's go time.

It is push.

Like at 10 centimetres, the baby starts to come.

So when I got there, I called Coco and she got there from her party, but then it was

just the two of us and you weren't there.

And I thought, this is weird.

You must be in there hiding in the corner.

I also appreciate the chaotic energy coming from your household of somebody turning up

in like party out with a fresh fringe.

It's so true.

And then Jason arriving because we came in three cars, which is not good for the environment,

but it is what it is.

And he came and it was a good moment in the cricket as we discussed on the main episode.

He had the cricket live streaming.

So then we're all kind of waiting outside and then we're allowed to come in.

You got the call at the pub though.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

So we ran from the pub.

I was like, dad, no offense.

No time for your stay.

He also was watching the cricket.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

He was very into the cricket.

And so we ran back.

We got lost.

It was a whole, it could have been a movie.

How lost we got and how much I was like, I need to see this baby.

Oh, you must have.

And so then we got there, waited a little bit and I went in.

We saw the doctor who happened to be the same doctor that delivered cocoa at a light jog,

which I did reenact for a video, which I put in the group chat because I thought that was

very exciting.

Yeah.

He went, hey, Mia.

And I'm like, hey, Steven.

And he was at a light jog.

He was already masked up.

Oh, yeah.

That is exciting.

It was like a movie.

It was a bit movie.

I mean, I was like, did he seem panicked?

Did he seem worried?

And she's like, it's hard to tell under the mask, but she said, I don't think so.

His jog was, he wasn't sprinting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it was a, I have somewhere to be in that there's a baby coming.

We got a text saying baby girl is here and she's perfect.

And I, it's so fascinating that when I kind of walked into the room, it was me and mum

who went in first.

And I know Jesse's been pregnant for nine months.

I've known there's a baby girl in there.

I speak to her every day.

I have touched the tummy and felt her move and, you know, you kind of know her personality

when you walk in and Jesse's holding a baby.

And it makes no sense.

I'm like, where did she come from?

Where did you get that?

Where did you get that?

Because it was in her and then it was out of her and there was a whole other person in

the room.

There's this, it seems so big, even though she was, she's a little, she's a little baby,

but she seemed so big in that she's got toes and fingernails and hair.

When Luca came out a little bit after the baby was born, I always say I had a little

bit of time.

He came out to tell us and then obviously we couldn't come in all of us because it was

Jesse's parents, Luca's parents, us and Claire and your husband, Rory and Coco.

And Remy, Luca's other brother, was away.

He was away with friends.

So we were all there and it was very clear that Claire went in first because there's a

hierarchy, right?

And I'm very conscious of this because I'm not the mother of the mum and the mother of

the dad, which puts you lower in the pecking order.

So I was saying to someone today, I was talking to my best friend and I said that pecking

order is clearly Claire and me.

I went in and I'm not a crier, I'm emotionally constipated as a person.

Absolutely lost it.

Oh, Claire.

Heaving completely lost it.

When you were in there or because by the time you came out, you were bawling.

Oh, from the moment I walked into the room to the moment I walked out, absolutely inconsolable.

One of the midwives was like, has something happened?

It's a miracle.

Like it's so beautiful.

Did you hold her straight away?

She was on Jesse's boob.

And so I like sniffed her head, gave her a little tickle, played with her feet, all of that.

And Jesse and I have kind of been.

Ann was with you too, I should say.

Yes.

Ann Stevens and Claire were the first in.

Yes.

And mum was just like, well done.

You did very well.

I love her.

No nonsense for her mum.

Yes.

She didn't cry.

Good birth.

Good birthing.

Good earnings.

Well done.

But Jess and I have been trying to, because obviously there's, you know, the moment where

she saw Luna for the first time, then I came in and saw her.

And we've been trying to think of the word for it because there just doesn't seem to be

a word for it.

In the English language.

No.

And the only thing we could come up with was just awe.

It's like, Jesse's like, it was like seeing the inside of the universe.

It's like seeing something impossible happen.

And I remember listening to a podcast a little while ago and hearing someone say, when you

have a baby, you often start to think of human beings and yourself a bit differently because

you see a newborn and think this person is perfect no matter what they ever do, no matter

what they achieve.

And it kind of gives you a bit of self-compassion and compassion to the people around you because

you're like, we're all babies trying to have love and eat some food from mummy's boo.

It's the most woo-woo I've ever made.

I know, but I'm loving it.

It's gorgeous.

But there is something about seeing a newborn and thinking, you are loved unconditionally

and it's so ridiculous that then we spend our lives having these hallmarks of what we

have to achieve.

And it's like, no, you are perfect as you are.

Just a little baby angel.

The word miracle is overused, isn't it?

Especially for something that happens like every day, like all the time, many times, to

many, many women.

When I came in, she was also breastfeeding and I thought, oh poor Jessie, already I'm

way too close to her boot for her comfort.

It's all already gone pear shaped.

But luckily she was on happy hormones.

I think the relief and there was a confidence in Jessie that I've never seen before and

a pride that I've never seen before with Jessie.

Even of all the things she's done, which are epic, I've never seen that.

And she just seemed, this is going to sound so funny, but she seemed like a woman.

She seemed older.

You know, she seemed like she knew what to do.

She was someone's mum.

She wasn't a girl anymore.

And it was very emotional and seeing Luca and it was, it was overwhelming too.

Did you lose at the moment you walked into the room?

I felt all the feelings, but it was almost too much.

Like I didn't cry at the birth of any of my babies because it was that same thing of

just almost shock, happy shock.

It's a bit like when you have a baby, if you're with the co-parent of that baby, watching

the relationship between the baby and your partner is a whole other thing that there's

no word for that makes you fall in love with them even more and is just, it's like joy.

I actually feel that way when I see Luca and Jessie together.

I feel exactly the same way.

Like it feels my heart as if it's me who's madly in love or who's being loved.

And it feels like that, like watching your child become a parent, it's already filling

me up in a way that I didn't even know was possible.

Anyway, out loud as thanks for bearing with us.

I hope if anyone's still listening, this has given you a bit of an insight into what it's

been like for us.

She of course has her own very big story to tell.

She's just feeling, we're all feeling all the love from all of you.

It was funny.

I was lurking in the out loudest group over the weekend while she was in labor and there

was messages like, is our baby here yet?

And when I was there visiting, Luca was in the rooms where you can go and it's like

the education center where there's just it's sort of empty and I was in there with him

and the baby and a woman came in to fill up her water bottle and she was clearly an out

louder and she's like, I love the show and I went, that's Jesse's baby.

And she goes, yeah, I thought it might be.

And Luca went, it'd be weird if it wasn't because he's holding it on his chest.

This is another one.

Yeah.

We're out loud as an only midwives and we just, you know, Jesse's feeling very much

feeling the love.

I love the out loudest who have said they went up to their partner and said Jesse and Luca

had their baby as though their partner should know who that is as though it's like friends

with theirs and their partner's like, good for them, but the parasocial relationships

are bloody real.

I really feel like the out loudest have been on the whole bloody journey.

And it's so exciting.

And I know that Jesse has just been overwhelmed by the support and excitement and everyone's

been so lovely.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.