A mother who was at the centre of a home water birth controversy has defended herself against critics after she faced backlash.
Jessie Goetze, from Queensland’s Port Douglas, gave birth to her baby daughter Mahli in a bathtub at home without a midwife or doctor 10 months ago.
The couple decided to share the footage on social media of the intimate home birth of their little girl who was born just 23 minutes after her waters broke.
But fast forward 10 months, the mother was slammed by medical experts for ‘promoting’ home births after her footage was taken out of context.
Taking to Instagram, the young mother fired back at vile trolls for jumping to conclusion before hearing her side of the story.
Jessie Goetze, from Queensland’s Port Douglas, was at the centre of a controversy after a home water birth of her baby Mahli, now 10 months old, emerged earlier this month
‘An intimate special moment of ours was ripped apart, demonised, criticised, sensationalised and my intelligence was completely insulted,’ she said.
‘I don’t like to create drama and be confrontational but this is something I believe in and I will defend myself.
‘You can’t interfere with and expose my life decisions like that and then when it all blows over, just expect me to be a good girl and keep quiet.
‘No, I’m going to use my voice because you didn’t give me a chance to when you were ripping my life apart.
‘You open this can of worms and you’ve created a monster.’
Appearing on the Today show on Friday, the mother-of-one broke her silence publicly for the first time about why she opted for a home birth.
The home birth video emerged earlier this month, showing the happy couple welcoming their baby daughter in the bathtub of their home
‘It went from one extreme to another,’ she said as she explained the video was originally shared among birthing pages across Facebook and Instagram.
The mother said her video received a significant amount of positive and supportive comments until false information portrayed about her caused a storm.
‘We started to experience a lot of the negativity and hurtful comments,’ she said.
‘It was mortifying to turn the TV on to see what was the most incredible, special, empowering moment of our life being used in a way that really preyed on the vulnerabilities of mothers and fathers and expectant mothers and affirm their fears.’
She revealed the family chose to have a home birth because her nearest hospital with a maternity ward was more than an hour away.
The mother gave birth to her daughter 10 months ago – but it was only this month the video came to light
The mother defended herself against critics – as she revealed the reason they opted for a home birth was because their nearest hospital with a maternity ward was more than an hour away
‘I think it’s important to explain the difference between the free birth and the home birth,’ she said.
‘The home birth is attended by a midwife or a doctor and a free birth is where you are unassisted and you don’t have the medical support.’
Ms Goetze said ideally they would have preferred a midwife but they had no option but to choose a free birth due to their location.
‘Looking back, it’s lucky that we did prepare for the quick labour because Mahli was born 23 minutes after my waters broke,’ she said.
She admitted the family did prepare themselves with their bags packed and ready to go to the hospital in case of an emergency.
‘But as I said, the waters really broke and she came quite quickly,’ Ms Goetze said.