Our Yorkshire Farm star Amanda Owen has experienced some rather unusual births.
The 46-year-old shepherdess has given birth a whopping nine times to her children Annas, Violet, Edith, Raven, Clemmy, Nancy, Reuben, Miles, and Sidney.
Staggeringly, six of her kids were born at the roadside as Amanda lives on the family’s farm in Ravenseat, Upper Swaledale, which is a lengthy 69 miles away from their nearest hospital in Middlesbrough.
Amanda joined the farm 25 years ago as a trainee shepherdess aged 21 when she first met husband Clive, who was divorced with two of his own children at the time.
Clive, 67, was present for births of their first seven children but missed the eighth for a somewhat unusual reason.
Rather than make the long trip to the hospital, Amanda laid down in front of the fire and bravely gave birth alone with only one of the family’s dogs for support.
(Image: Channel 5)
But husband Clive missed the birth of eight child, daughter Clemmie, having already seen her welcome six of their kids into the world.
“I put the kettle on, stoked up the fire and basically had her in front of the fire with just a terrier as a birthing partner, which is perfect,” she admitted on This Morning.
When the presenters burst out laughing, Amanda replied: “Honestly, don’t knock it, it’s great.”
Somewhat shockingly, Amanda explained that Clive wasn’t fussed about being at the birth because he had seen it all six times before.
“The point of the matter is he had been at seven births previously and we spend our whole lives dealing with birthing things, so it wasn’t exactly something that I was particularly bothered about,” she confessed.
Amanda added: “I did it myself and I’m very happy and pleased that I did.”
(Image: Channel 5)
While it may sound incredibly stressful to most of us, Amanda admitted her alone home birth was the calmest she’d ever had.
“Clive wasn’t desperate to be at the birth, he was asleep upstairs. I went and woke him up with the baby,” she told Radio Times.
“Of all the births I’ve had, this one has to have been the best – it was the most relaxing, the most quiet, the most peaceful.”
Clive previously joked that his wife should be put “through the ultrasound scanner with the sheep” after she discovered she was pregnant with their ninth child six months in.
Amanda got a surprise when she realised she was only had three months to go before the birth of Nancy, who is their youngest.
“It came as a real shock because I had no signs of pregnancy whatsoever,” she told The Mirror in May 2016.
(Image: Instagram)
Amanda has had so many children that she has been breastfeeding almost non-stop for 15 years.
“Why wouldn’t I?” she told Country & Town House in an interview in November. “It’s easy, the right temperature, and when you’re out lambing, what are you going to do?”
The Yorkshire Shepherdess, who has let the cameras into her home for Channel 5 series Our Yorkshire Farm, has also spoken about giving birth at the side of the road.
Amanda eventually decided home birthing was the best option after ruining a few picnics.
“I was so fed up of spoiling people’s picnics and all the rest of it,” she told This Morning hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary this month.
“So, I thought right well, this time I’m just going to go it alone.”
(Image: Channel 5)
On last week’s episode of Our Yorkshire Farm, we saw Amanda get shut down by her son Reuben while discussing his lockdown-affected GCSE results.
There was good news when the teenager arrived home to reveal he had passed all his exams with flying colours.
Reuben explained that he got a 6 maths, which was a grade B in the old GCSE scores, but his mum wanted to know if that was a good mark.
The teen replied: “Anything four and above is a pass. I got nothing below a four so I passed it all. I got a five in English language, a six in design and technology.”
When Amanda asked if that was the best score he could get, Reuben replied: “Oh, don’t go into that,” before shutting down requests from his mother to explain how the new grade boundaries worked.
Despite the confusion over the new grades, parents Amanda and Clive were very pleased with their son’s results.
*Our Yorkshire Farm airs tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/yorkshire-farm-mum-gave-birth-23993406