These Celebs Got Real About Their At-Home Birth Experiences

From the mainstream hospital setting to at home in the living room, mothers have many options when it comes to welcoming their bundles of joy. As of late, many families are opting for home births — with rates increasing to the highest level they’ve ever been in the past 30 years. While giving birth at home isn’t for everyone and should be a careful decision made with the support of a doctor, many celebrities have opened up about their experience — and couldn’t recommend it more!

Find out which celebs gave birth at home…

1. Nikki Reed

Nikki Reed and her husband Ian Somerhalder recently announced the birth of their second child, whom they welcomed at home. Although the couple is very private, Nikki shared a photo from the birth experience, expressing how incredible it was to welcome her son at home.

“A few weeks ago we welcomed our son on what can only be described as one of the most beautiful days of my life. Born at home in water and surrounded by so much love, in an instant my heart doubled in size,” Nikki wrote on her Instagram Story.

2. Gigi Hadid

Gigi Hadid gave birth to the baby she shares with ex Zayn Malik at her farm house in Pennsylvania. She says she chose to welcome her daughter at home after watching the 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born and out of a desire to have her family be by her side while in labor. Looking back, she says it was an exhausting experience, but it was so sweet to have Zayn catch their baby.

“I think they all knew that I have that animal in me. When you see someone do that, you look at them a bit differently. I probably looked crazy, actually. I was an animal woman,” she told Vogue.

3. Rachel Platten

In 2021, Rachel Platten gave birth to her daughter Sophie Jo at home and while it was a “grueling” experience, it was completely worth it. Reflecting on the experience, Rachel says she was in labor for over two days but continued onward thanks to strength from her daughter.

“When I thought I couldn’t take anymore, this amazing, wise little one kept whispering to me ‘we can do this mama, we can do this.’ So I kept going one contraction at a time. I feel like a warrior and I will NEVER doubt my strength again. Thank you Sophie for showing me what I am made of and for completing our family,” Rachel wrote on Instagram.

4. Ashley Graham

Ashley Graham has given birth to all three of her children at home and says it was an empowering experience. Looking back, Ashley says that knowing she was able to make it through unmedicated home births makes her feel like she can do anything.

“I have to say, now that I gave birth and I did it naturally and I felt everything, I feel like there’s nothing I can’t do,” she said on her Pretty Big Deal podcast. “There’s nothing that could come my way where I say, ‘Oh, that’s too hard, I can’t handle that.’ I went through laboring for six hours naturally.”

5. Elsa Hosk

Elsa Hosk didn’t always plan to give birth at home but when she moved to Los Angeles with her boyfriend Tom Daly, they changed their minds and decided to welcome their baby “naturally and drug-free at home, in water.” Elsa reflected on the experience in a poignant essay on Instagram, opening up about the “worst pain, fear, and darkness” she’s ever felt in the toughest moments of giving birth. But after hours of difficult labor, Elsa says all was forgotten as soon as she had her baby in her arms.

“The most pain I’ve ever felt is forgotten, I am overwhelmed with love, proudness, happiness. She is here. I talk to her. I tell her I’m so proud of her. Her mom has been through war and yet she is so chill, her heart rate so stable,” she wrote. “She had arrived with the sun at 7am, and the room shifted from what felt like a horror movie darkness into a light sun filled dream.”

6. Kehlani

Kehlani gave birth to her daughter right in the bathroom of her home. Looking back, she says the unmedicated home birth was “the absolute hardest yet most powerful thing” she’s ever done. But after sharing about her experience, some followers felt that Kehlani was shaming others who chose to give birth in a hospital setting.

“All birth is extremely hard and transformative. Homebirth is a medical decision as is hospital birth, all birth is mind blowing & powerful. Using my experience to shame another’s isnt what i want. Power to anyone who brings life forth, it’s a next level journey whichever way,” she tweeted.

7. Karolina Kurková

Karolina Kurková has always had a very positive experience giving birth at home and when she welcomed her third baby in 2021, she says everything was “smooth and beautiful.” While she knows it’s “not for everybody,” it’s what made the most sense to her.

“It’s my home and I’m relaxed. I’m not stressed. In labor, that’s really what you need; you need to feel good and to be as relaxed as possible,” she told People. “To be able to have my husband there with me in the water, in the pool, and be that support for me. For him to be so involved and so hands on, he’ll tell you it’s the most incredible, most beautiful, most important thing he’s ever done.”

8. Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford gave birth to both of her children at home and has been a trailblazer of the home birth movement ever since. She was even featured in the 2011 docu-series More Business of Being Born. Looking back, Cindy says she felt empowered by her decision to welcome her children at home, away from the hustle of a hospital setting.

“You are in your own environment. You’re not hearing another person down the hall screaming or ambulances or people rushing about around you. You chose who to have with you. Within an hour, there was no one in my house. I was there with my baby and my husband. I sat and had dinner with my husband, on a doughnut,” Cindy told Yahoo.

She added, “It was hard. It hurt. But the cool thing was…so many people, when you have your baby, they’re like, ‘Who delivered your baby?’ You’re like, ‘Oh Dr. So and So.’ But I delivered my baby. It was so empowering for me. I could take that and frame that into being a new mom when you’re sort of insecure. I felt like I just ran a marathon.”

9. Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette gave birth to her first child at home and while she admits it was “beyond” painful, she says it was a beautiful experience overall. Looking back, she says she has “no regrets but knows it’s not the right choice for everyone.

“I didn’t really even imagine myself having the birth experience in the hospital,” Alanis told Today. “My home is like my little sanctuary…The experience was beyond pain. It was a transcendental experience. I just went to this whole other world. I basically had to be the little soldier that I am and really focus on this new beautiful creature coming out of me.”

10. Maya Rudolph

Maya Rudolph gave birth to her daughter at home but it definitely wasn’t her plan. She says that the baby ended up coming so fast, that she didn’t have any time to get to a hospital and her husband delivered her.

“[A home birth] was not my plan, but that’s what happened…because the baby came out really fast. Luckily, she just kind of glided into her father’s arms. It was scary, but it was kind of awesome. Hospitals make me nervous because I feel like hospital equals death, like it smells like dead people and weird fluids that pickle people,” she said on Chelsea Lately.

11. Alyson Hannigan

Alyson Hannigan decided to give birth to all three of her children at home after realizing it was the place where she was most comfortable. Although it’s not the best fit for everyone, she says her experience was “phenomenal.”

“I don’t like hospitals and the idea of being in labor somewhere I don’t like at all wasn’t how I wanted to bring my kids into the world. I thought, ‘Where am I most comfortable?’ For me, the choice was phenomenal. We had a midwife but we asked our doctor if he needed to be there. He said, ‘Sure, but you don’t need me. A midwife does everything I do,'” Alyson told Yahoo Parenting.

12. Jade Roper

Bachelor in Paradise star Jade Roper accidentally gave birth at home when her second child arrived sooner than expected. Jade ended up having the baby right in the closet of her bedroom but thankfully medics quickly arrived to help.

“I’ve been still processing the shock of this all, as this was not at all what I had planned, but I am so so thankful for each person who helped bring our son into the world safely,” she wrote on Instagram shortly after. “My water broke and 75 minutes later I gave birth to our healthy baby boy while clutching a bench in our closet. It was one of the scariest moments of my life because I felt so out of control, but Tanner, Tanner’s mom, my mom and the medics and firefighters kept me going when I felt like the world was caving in on me and my unborn baby.”

For her third child, Jade chose to give birth at home again, but this time it was planned!

13. Rumer Willis

Rumer Willis detailed her home birthing experience when she appeared on the “Informed Pregnancy” podcast where she gave a granular play-by-play of her intense delivery.

Rumer was surrounded by family — her mom Demi Moore and sisters Tallulah Willis and Scout LaRue Willis — along with her partner Derek Richard Thomas, a doulah, and a midwife.

You can read her full account here.