I gave birth in 40 seconds without pushing – my baby ‘shot out’ of me

A mother has revealed she gave birth in just 40 seconds after forgoing an epidural, saying the baby ‘popped out’ without her pushing.

Cianna Gonzalez, 24, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was in labor for three hours but had a quick delivery when she welcomed her second child, a baby boy, on August 8, 2022.

‘I felt him coming down. I shouted, “He’s coming!” she remembered. ‘My baby came out completely voluntarily. I didn’t have to push him out. He came out on his own.’

Gonzalez’s easy birth was due to a medical rarity known as the Ferguson reflex, or the fetal ejection reflex.

Cianna Gonzalez, 24, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, gave birth to her second child in just 40 seconds on August 8, 2022

‘I felt him coming down. I shouted, “He’s coming!” she remembered. ‘My baby came out completely voluntarily. I didn’t have to push him out. He came out on his own.”

Gonzalez’s easy birth was due to a medical rarity known as the Ferguson reflex or the fetal ejection reflex. The natural phenomenon occurs when the body involuntarily expels a baby

This natural phenomenon occurs when the body involuntarily expels a baby thanks to an increase in oxytocin, which leads to powerful contractions.

The experience is more likely to occur when the mother feels “safe and supported,” the researchers said Healthline.

It is also more common in home birthswhere there are lower intervention rates.

Some mothers who have experienced it compare it to sneezing: once it starts, it can’t be stopped.

Gonzalez didn’t have a quick delivery when she welcomed her first son on February 10, 2021, but overall it was a positive experience.

She said it gave her “confidence” and made her “excited to do it again.”

Gonzalez was 38 weeks pregnant with her second son when she started having what she thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions, or false contractions.

When she called her birth center, she was told to come in and discovered she was actually in labor.

Gonzalez was giving birth in a birthing pool when she suddenly felt the baby coming.

Gonzalez didn’t have a quick delivery when she welcomed her first son on February 10, 2021, but overall it was a positive experience.

The stay-at-home mom believes “being able to relax” triggered the Ferguson reflex

She tried to get out of the tub to give birth, but realized there was no time for that.

“I was wracked with fear at that moment,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Who’s going to catch this baby?’ It happened very naturally and very quickly.’

Her midwife was able to grab her son as he slipped out at 10:35 that morning.

The healthy baby boy weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces, slightly less than his older brother, who weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces at birth.

The stay-at-home mom believes “being able to relax” triggered the Ferguson reflex.

“It was very intuitive on the baby’s part. It was incredible,” she said.

‘I didn’t know I could do that and neither did the baby. He had it at his own pace.”