Max Collins looks back how she gave birth at home
Kapuso actress Max Collins shared her struggle during her labor in their home.
Max and Pancho Magno decided to have water birth at home because of the COVID-19 threat.
On July 6, Max gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Skye Anakin, their first child.
“So this is where it all began. At 3:30 am, I woke up and I had to use the bathroom,” Max explained in her latest YouTube vlog.
“So, I felt that something was different and that's when my contraction started.
"And I monitored them on this app until the app told me that it was time for me to go to the hospital.
“And that's when I started slightly panicking and my husband started everything getting ready.
“So he inflated the pool, right here,” Max said, pointing at their bedroom floor.
She continued, “And he filled it up with water. He tried to make the room very spa-like with candles, and a diffuser, and just make it all really nice.
“Except we forget one thing that our blinds don't really cover the lights, so it was so, so bright and I was really uncomfortable so I ended up having contractions, painful contractions, and wanting to hide.”
Max went to their walk-in closet to hide from the light, before going to the bathroom, where her water broke.
“The floor was like all wet and yeah, I was just crawling basically, and at that time, my doula and my midwife were already here and my midwife checked on me and said I was fully dilated,” she explained.
Max returned to the inflatable pool with warm water Pancho set up in their bedroom.
“I really thought that I would feel this relief once I got into the warm water, but I didn't, it was still really painful,” she continued.
“And by that time, Pancho was massaging my tailbone just to counter the pain and it was so, so read already and it was just like, basically I want him to crack my tailbone for me because of the pain.
“And I kind of lost my energy because I kept puking, and that whole time, I just kept thinking to myself like, this too shall pass, every time the contractions came, I would tell myself that I could do it and I tried not to panic.”
Thankfully, Pancho was right beside Max when she was giving birth, giving her frozen blueberries that reenergize her.
“Pancho got really worried because at that time, I lost so much energy and my face was just really pale,” Max said.
“So I had to eat something that would give me energy to push more so I ate frozen blueberries and that honestly really helped me have that extra boost to keep pushing.”
Since she was not comfortable in her position on the inflatable pool, her midwife advised her to stand-up. When they already saw the head of the baby, they asked Max to squat while her back rested on Pancho.
“And they found that to be the best position to get Skye out, and I didn't have the strength to push anymore,” she added.
“They were saying just keep pushing and he'll come out and I was like, once I tear, there's no way that I'll be able to continue pushing through the pain.
“So we moved back into the water and that's when I was able to really push and push and the water helped me get him out.
“And once he came out, I just felt this overwhelming joy.”
Kapuso couple Max Collins and Pancho Magno welcomed their first child, Skye Anakin, via water birth in their home on July 6. / Source: Max Collins (YouTube)
Max continued, “And I just felt so much relieved that he came out safely, and he was crying really loud, so that told me that he was a healthy baby boy.”
“It was so overwhelming, actually.”
IN PHOTOS: Max Collins and Pancho Magno's son Skye Anakin's first photoshoot
Know more about Max's giving birth journey in her latest vlog: