‘I don’t know where the energy came from to push Margot out’
Reality star Billie Shepherd on her difficult labour, finding her inner strength and how she’s adjusting to life as a family of five
Billie Shepherd may have previous experience of giving birth but, as she prepared for the arrival of her third child, she was keen to follow in the footsteps of her younger sister Sam Faiers and have a water birth.
However, birth plans don’t always work out – as Billie discovered when she had Margot in December.
When we catch up with the 33-year-old, she tells us Margot’s birth was the most “stressful” one she’s had because at one point she thought she might end up having an emergency C-section.
“I’ve never had a C-section,” says Billie. “I wanted to have a similar birth to what I did with the other two, though this time I was thinking about a water birth. Then on the flipside, it’s like I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get the baby here safely.”
Alongside her husband Greg, 37, Billie decided to document the arrival of their third child in a one-off special of their
Family Diaries show. And viewers are in for quite the ride if Billie’s description of the birth is anything to go by. “The first 24 hours after my waters broke, I stayed at home but because I didn’t start contracting, I had to go into hospital,” she says. “They put me on a labour ward and then Greg had to go home [because of hospital rules].”
With no sign of contractions, Billie was then induced and, eventually, on day three of her labour, she was sent to a birthing suite where she was put on an oxytocin drip.
“Because she [Margot] had been in there for so long without any water around her, they were convinced
I was going to have a C-section because my cervix wasn’t dilating,” Billie says. “Then they said, ‘One last check’ and I was nine centimetres dilated. The doctor came in and was like, ‘Right, you can start pushing.’” Billie says that even though she was shattered by this point, she found her inner strength. “I was exhausted and I got this adrenaline and I don’t know where the energy came from within to push her out, but I was determined,” she says.
Greg reveals he was taken aback by how difficult the birth was, as he presumed the baby would “fly out”. “Because Nelly was a very long, tiring labour for Billie and Arthur shot out like a bullet, I thought the canal’s there, the passageway is there, so I just thought it would fly out,” he says. “It was probably the most stressful one.” After a challenging few days, Margot arrived at 6.16pm on 2 December, weighing 7lb 10oz. And Greg, Billie and her mum Suzie Wells, who was also at the birth, cried with joy as she arrived.
“It’s the most amazing feeling in the world, when you hear your baby crying and they put them on you,” says Billie. “I was like, ‘What is it?’ to Greg and he was like, ‘It’s a girl!’”
Within an hour of Margot arriving, her siblings Nelly, eight, and five-year-old Arthur, headed to hospital to meet their sister. “I wanted to tell them she was a girl,” Billie says. “Their reactions were priceless. They couldn’t believe it. They were so cute and happy.”
In fact, Nelly even chose her sister’s name. Billie tells us, “When I was pregnant, Nelly was the one who suggested it. She said, ‘Mummy, if we have a girl, shall we call her Margot?’ It just stuck. My great-nan was called Margot and Suzanne is her middle name after my mum.”
Billie is keen to open up about how hard it is for any parents out there who might be feeling low on energy.
“Having a baby is the best thing in the world and we’re absolutely loving it, but there are times where emotions are running high,” she says. “You see all that on the show. I haven’t held back with anything because I do think it’s important to show the reality of having a baby.”
One of the main challenges the Shepherds have faced is adapting to being a family-of-five and Arthur in particular has struggled with the change. “We’ve had lots of moments – tears, tantrums. It is a big thing adjusting any new baby into a family,” she says. “With Arthur being the youngest, we always expected it a little bit. He’s being a bit smothering and it’s all for my attention. I’ll be pottering around and he’ll be over her and breathing on her and looking
at me out of the corner of his eye. It doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative attention – as long as he’s got my attention.”
But Nelly and Arthur have also been getting involved and helping their parents by holding their sister when they get home from school. “Arthur, bless him, he’s really good at helping out,” she says. “Whereas Nelly can be a bit like, ‘Oh, am I a slave now?’ But then Nelly’s really good with Margot and can hold her and walk about with her now.”
Her businessman husband Greg describes Billie as an “unbelievable” mother. “She does all the night feeds,” he says. “We have our routine in the morning – I get the kids ready and take them to school, but Billie is with that baby nearly 24/7.”
She also has her sister Sam, 32, who gave birth to her third child Edward last May, on hand to offer her advice about dealing with three kids. “We talk about it all the time,” Billie says. “She says you’ve got to take each day as it comes – and it does get easier.”
‘Nelly was the one who suggested the name Margot’
The Billie & Greg: The Family Diaries – Baby No3 episode is on tonight (Sunday), 7.30pm, ITVBe. Billie & Greg: The Family Diaries returns in April. Watch previous episodes on ITVX