Lake Bell Reveals She Was Told Her Son Would Never Walk Or Talk After Home Birth Gone Wrong

“We had two home births. The first was with daughter Nova in Brooklyn. I felt very empowered…the home birth was this amazing primal bonding,” Lake recalled.

“I got pregnant again, and this time we’re in L.A. and I said, I want a home birth again. We had him at home. I was huge, he was 11 lbs. The same thing happened, I was at home and he had the cord wrapped around and he was on my chest,” Lake shared.

Adding, “He was not coming to. Now you’re in really f**king life and death. Your child is there and the entire room is trying to resuscitate him and they can’t. The paramedics are on their way, he’s still there. This person you don’t know.” After Ozzy was born, the midwife told the actress that she needed to be induced in order to birth her placenta.

“I was looking at my phone as they were sewing me up and I get a little video from husband Scott: little Ozzy just barely taking breaths with the oxygen mask and I just passed out. Because I was like, ‘He’s alive,’ and then I just passed out,” Lake noted. After Ozzy was born, he was placed in the NICU for 11 days, which was a stressful experience.

“He was hypoxic, he was without oxygen for longer than the four minutes that is associated with being okay…We were told that he could have cerebral palsy or never walk or talk. That was our reality…Children’s Hospital Los Angeles saved his life.”

There was a period of time where the No Strings Attached actress felt guilty for putting her family through the traumatic experience. “I’ve gone through therapy and was medicated for a year-and-a-half,” she confessed. “I did wean myself off but I was on antidepressants to help kind of regulate. I barely take Advil but I was like, this is absolutely imperative in order for me to function.”

Lake never told the story about Ozzy’s home birth, but wanted to share it because she’s proud that she was able to “walk out of that hospital with a clean bill of health.”