Lifetime to deliver new reality show ‘Born in the Wild’

Having a baby can be a stressful enough experience without introducing Mother Nature.

But in the upcoming Lifetime reality series "Born in the Wild" – premiering March 3 – six expectant sets of parents are taking home birth to the next level and going full primitive, choosing to deliver their newborns outdoors.

One such couple is Peter and Audrey Bird, whose 6-month-old daughter, Piper, was born outside their home in Alaska, in a rural town with no road access, wandering bears and 150 miles from the nearest hospital.

The Birds – who have been married seven years and also have a 6-year-old son and a 2 ¹/₂-year-old daughter – moved to Alaska from Utah last April in search of a simpler lifestyle where they could be self-sufficient, so the decision to deliver their daughter outside seemed a natural choice.

Peter and Audrey Bird from "Born In The Wild"Photo: Getty Images

"It mostly stems from our way of life," Peter, 29, tells The Post. "It's not that we decided to go out in the middle of nowhere and have a birth. We were in the middle of nowhere to attain a way of life and we happened to be pregnant."

Audrey, 25, was also not keen on a hospital birth after having a negative experience when she delivered her son.

"The main problem I had with my first birth is my choices weren't respected," she says. "I said, 'I don't want IV lines, I want to be able to move, be able to walk, I don't want to be strapped down to the bed or tied to a monitor.'

"The nurses at that time . . . were very argumentative and as soon as I proved any resistance to what they wanted to do, they treated me disrespectfully and they introduced a lot of fear to me that wasn't necessary. They scared me and threatened me into what they wanted to do and I didn't want that again."

Following that experience, Audrey trained to become a midwife and gave birth to her second child in her home, assisted only by her husband, who has medical training from his former job as a sheriff and who learned midwifery skills from his wife. For their third child – their first born in the warmer months – they decided to take it a step further, into the wild.

"I wanted to be outside because I love outside, that's where we spend most of our time," Audrey says. "With other births, I wanted windows, wanted to be able to walk around outside with [the babies]. This time I was outside from the beginning."

Audrey did some minor laboring in her home, but when things started to progress she moved outside to an old wall tent on their property that Peter had fixed up for the birth. The flat floor was covered with foam pads and blankets to make it more comfortable, and there were mosquito nets to keep out the bugs and a tarp on top of the structure in case it started to rain.

I've attended many births, dealt with many complications. We were very prepared, we didn't anticipate anything going wrong that we couldn't handle. - Audrey Bird

While producers offered all of the couples on the show the option of having a medical professional on-site in case of emergency, the Birds declined, though they had all of Audrey's midwifery equipment including oxygen, suctioning tools and herbal drugs in case she started hemorrhaging. The couple also contacted a medevac team who was on standby 30 minutes away in case things took a turn for the worse.

Audrey spent three hours outside in labor, and while there were plenty of mosquitoes to swat away, she says it didn't feel that different from a home birth.

"When you're in labor you kind of go into this zone; it didn't register to me that I was anywhere other than where I wanted to be," she says. "When I was in earlier stages of labor I really enjoyed walking around outside."

While Peter admits he thought about the possibility of something going wrong, he says the couple wasn't nervous about their unconventional choice.

"I've attended many births, dealt with many complications. We were very prepared, we didn't anticipate anything going wrong that we couldn't handle," Audrey says. "I trust birth, I trust the process, I trust my body, I trust my husband, I trust my training. People have this idea that birth is so dangerous – birth in most cases is perfectly safe."

While the Birds already live a rural lifestyle, most of the other "Born in the Wild" couples live in the suburbs and traveled for their wild births. Producers cast the show by reaching out to midwives and alternative birthing communities, which is how the Birds found out about the project.

To minimize its risk, the series didn't accept any first-time mothers, couples had to submit detailed birth plans and each pregnancy was evaluated by a risk assessment company. Producers covered medical expenses related to the birth, but the couples were otherwise not compensated for being on the show.

Audrey – who says she would "absolutely" have another baby outdoors – decided to allow her unconventional birth to be filmed to show other pregnant women that there are alternatives.

"Our choice may be more extreme than most people's, but there's definitely other choices than just the hospital," she says. "There's birthing centers, home births, outside. Women need to know that they have that choice."

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