Actress Amy Walsh has detailed her exhausting labour after giving birth just after Christmas.
The Emmerdale star, who has played Tracy Metcalfe since 2014, welcomed daughter Bonnie Mae with partner Toby-Alexander Smith on December 27 - but the birth of their little girl wasn't plain sailing for 34-year-old Amy.
Amy revealed she was induced and had two epidurals during her 20-hour labour.
Thankfully, the soap star had sisters Kimberley - best known for being in Girls Aloud - and Sally on hand to give her the best advice.
Amy, who says she is "tired" following the long birth just over one month ago, opened up about her exhausting labour in a new post-birth interview.
The actress said it all started on Boxing Day, when she thought her waters had broke.
Amy was due on Christmas Eve, but Bonnie Mae was born the day after Boxing Day.
However she had tested positive for Group B strep - an infection which we carry as adults but with pregnancy it can affect the baby if you've got it at the time of labour - meaning Amy had to be induced because the risk of infection was heightened.
"So it wasn't the natural labour I would have chosen," she told OK! Magazine. She continued: "I was joking in the hospital, texting my family that I was so sad to miss out on my Boxing Day meal, then my sister and her husband came and dropped us off a pack-up while we waited for the pessary induction to kick in!"
In a bid to keep in good spirits after missing out on Boxing Day antics, Amy said she and Toby ate her mum's Christmas ham out of a plastic container as they waited in the hospital bay.
The mum-of-one said she didn't really have a birth plan in place as she's aware of how quickly things can change.
However she did all the hypnobirthing courses and shared how Tamsyn, their midwife, was great.
Amy said she put fairy lights up and Toby did a playlist for us with all the old classics we love.
Amy described the induction as "intense" and that she had to get her first epidural at that point as the pain was "strong".
The actress explained: "We did the pessary but changed to the drip pretty quickly to get things moving faster, because the time since my waters broke had been too long. It was an intense induction, the pain was strong but I wasn't dilating. We had about 12 hours of that and I had to have an epidural as the pain was so strong. The epidural eventually kicked in a bit and then I was on gas and air, and I was laughing."
Describing how things went after her second epidural, Amy said: "The pushing was way harder than I thought it would be. Every contraction, we'd get a bit closer and then she'd go back. She was just moving in and out, popping the top of her head out and then slipping back in.
"Toby had been really calm the whole time and then suddenly was like, 'Push really hard'. He'd seen them discussing alternative methods of getting her out – forceps or an emergency Caesarean. So I had that in my head and, god knows how, found some strength for one final push."
Baby Bonnie Mae was later born at around 3.40pm the next day after a 20-hour labour.
Amy thanked Toby for being "supportive" throughout the birth and revealed if it wasn't for him she "couldn't have done it".
