TikTok: @hortonlane, Chrissy Horton
An influencer who documented the process of giving birth to her fifth child went viral on TikTok, as she shared the details she said she wasn't aware of when she had her first baby.
On January 3, Chrissy Horton, a blogger, TikToker, and Instagrammer based in San Diego, California, posted a three-minute video to her TikTok account which she said in the caption she started recording as she began feeling her "first serious contractions." The video followed Horton's experience as she appeared to visit a hospital, give birth, and hold her newborn.
"When I was pregnant with my first baby I had no idea what to expect when giving birth. I wish I had someone to talk me through how long labor could potentially be, the interventions that are used, and what my options were," Horton wrote in the caption.
In the video, which received over 6.4 million views, Horton provided time stamps of each event in on-screen captions. According to the TikTok, Horton appeared to check into the hospital at 3:30 a.m., and asked for an epidural at 4:00 a.m.
In the caption of the video, Horton said she had "an epidural for all my births" and wanted this delivery to be unmedicated, however she said she "knew I would lack the strength to push if I continued to suffer and fight the pain."
As the delivery began, Horton said in the video voiceover, "Here's where it's gonna get real. I'm not gonna edit it, so if you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen." The video proceeded to show Horton laying in a hospital bed crying as she's told to push.
The video then follows post-birth moments, showing her holding the baby to her chest, her partner cutting the umbilical cord, and medical staff weighing and measuring the baby.
The video received over 15,600 comments and an overwhelmingly positive response. One user wrote, "Thank you for sharing raw reality of birth. I'm currently pregnant with my first and I'm scared af," in a comment that received over 52,300 likes.
"The realest video I've seen yet lol. I love this page," a comment with over 1,600 likes said.
Horton has over 552,000 followers on her TikTok account where she describes herself in her bio as "Your big sis through pregnancy, postpartum & motherhood." Her regular uploads include pregnancy checklists, day-in-the-life of a mom videos, and tips for new moms. She also has a blog where she shares tips on motherhood and general lifestyle, and a following of 142,000 on Instagram.
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