'I’m scared natural home birth videos are sending the wrong message to women'

It’s had 700,000 views and counting on YouTube. No, not Michelle Obama’s galvanising speech at the Democratic National Convention, but a video of a Canadian blogger’s home birth.

And it’s hardly surprising with the headline: INCREDIBLE HOME BIRTH VLOG!!! LABOUR & DELIVERY (UNASSISTED UNMEDICATED!! BY HERSELF!!!) that it’s raking in the views.

But the video surpassed anything I had imagined. Far from the cliche hippy whale music home birth scene, Legaci Allong, a young mother, 24, is fully made up, interacting with her family throughout and seems to be well informed and in control. We see her labour progress as she smiles through contraction after contraction, chatting and making smoothies throughout the process of dilation. She makes it look easy.

I had my first child last year and, like Legaci, was keen to embrace the natural birthing ethos. I joined hypnobirthing classes to focus my mind and control my breathing during contractions. It helped, but I was still hunched up like a gremlin making farmyard animal noises.

Legaci has vlogged about her life for the past four years, giving her thousands of followers a front row seat to witness the joys and sorrows of family life, including a heartbreaking miscarriage. She is skilled at performing in front of the camera and at no point does her performance slip in this vlog. It’s unbelievably impressive, and perhaps a little unnerving, that she has so much focus on the video rather than what her body is doing.

As her labour progresses, Lagaci talks about positive mindset and visualisation that produce the ‘happy hormone’ oxytocin, which is what brings on labour. Mothers are often sent home by the hospital when not sufficiently dilated, instructed to watch their favourite movie and eat chocolate. (Didn't have to tell me twice). But Legaci, takes this to new levels with affirmations to mentally stimulate her positivity.