Lake Bell feared her son wouldn't be able to talk or walk after a traumatic home birth.
The Bless This Mess actress has opened up for the first time about the birth of her youngest child - Ozgood, two - where she admits she feared she'd lost her son because the umbilical cord had been tangled around his neck and it had starved his brain of oxygen.
She said: "We had two home births. The first was with Nova in Brooklyn. I felt very empowered ... the home birth was this amazing primal bonding. When my daughter came out, she had the [umbilical] cord wrapped around her neck, and it was very scary. She was on my chest and she wasn't breathing. The midwife gave her three lifesaving breaths on my chest and my husband was there. She came to life and we saw it.
"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 pounds. The same thing happened, I was at home and he had the cord wrapped around and he was on my chest. He was not coming to. Now you're in really f***ing 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. The paramedics come in, the cord is still on, so he has oxygen through my blood. They cut the cord and [my husband] Scott [Campbell] ran out half-naked and I was naked after my seven hours of labouring."
And the 40-year-old actress - who also has Nova, four, with her husband Scott Campbell - thanked Los Angeles' Children's Hospital for saving her son's life.
Speaking on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, she added: "I was looking at my phone as they were sewing me up and I get a little video from 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.
"He was hypoxic, he was without oxygen for longer than the four minutes that is associated with being OK ... 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."