Mom Says She Was Already in Early Labor While Filming Herself Caring for Her Baby Chicks and Did Not Realize It Until Hours Later, Then Shares How Her Unmedicated Midwife Birth Went

On the Saturday before her daughter arrived, Lovina posted a video of herself taking care of her baby chicks. She did not know it while filming, she now tells her followers, but she “was actually in early labor and did not realize it until several hours later.” She shares that in a 99 second update on TikTok from lovina_zook, smiling from a brown recliner in a red top under the words “Hello Baby.”

“The birth went really, really well,” she says in the first few seconds. “We did a natural birth, no medications with a midwife.” Her daughter was “a little over 7 pounds, healthy, happy,” she says, and “we have not really had any problems since she was born.”

About the chicks video, she says, “I never thought I would make videos while I was in labor, but I’m really happy that I did,” because “it’s kinda cool to go back and watch the video and be like, oh, I was in early labor.” The chicks, she reports, are doing really well and are “happy in their little corner.”

She is exclusively breastfeeding and says it is going well: “My supply is really good. She feeds on demand already,” which she says lets her “get a lot of sleep.” She describes a baby who “rarely cries unless she’s hungry, needs to be burped.”

The name came with its own story. She says it means “my God has answered,” and that she and her husband chose it “because we prayed for her for a year before we got pregnant with her.” Getting pregnant, she says, was “many, many prayers answered.” Her caption reads: “Praise the Lord for His everlasting love and mercy.”

She ends by thanking followers for supporting “me and my husband” and the baby, says “I feel amazing” and “I love being postpartum,” and announces a break from social media until she has the energy for it, “and if she lets me, which she probably will, because she’s a really good baby.”

How the Start of Labor Can Slip By

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says early labor contractions can feel like back or pelvic pain similar to menstrual cramps, and that Braxton Hicks practice contractions can come for weeks before labor and feel like the real thing. True labor contractions, according to ACOG, “happen in a regular pattern and get closer together over time.”

What Feeding on Demand Looks Like in the First Weeks

Her description of a baby who feeds on demand and mostly cries when she is hungry matches the pattern the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes. According to the CDC, most exclusively breastfed babies feed every 2 to 4 hours, about 8 to 12 times in 24 hours, and seem content and drowsy after a feed when they have had enough milk.