The champion hurdler has always dared to be different, but this takes the cake!
With her daughter “crowning”, Jana Pittman reached down, put her hands on her baby’s head and pushed – then delivered her baby with her own hands!
Delicately hooking two fingers under her newborn’s armpits, student doctor Jana, 32, pulled out the baby she conceived with an anonymous sperm donor.
“Emily was perfect and healthy, and I loved her instantly,” smiles the Olympian, who incredibly also became her own midwife, alongside an obstetrician. “She was far more slippery than I’d thought she’d be!
“I’d always wanted to deliver my own baby, and with my mum and two close friends there with me, it’s definitely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever done.”
And as if that wasn’t incredible enough two weeks later Jana was back training for her Olympic comeback, at an athletics track near her Sydney home.
Emily Coral Florence Pittman certainly has some big running shoes to fill, but then she’s also had a very unusual start to life.
“At every scan I’d ask them to double check she was still a girl,” laughs the sprint star, who says she shopped for “pink everything” with her mum the day she found out she was having a daughter.
“I can’t stop looking at her! There’s nothing I’ve wanted more in my whole life than a baby girl.”
It’s easy to see why she’s so in love with her now five-week-old baby girl, snug in her bunny rug with her tiny button nose and rosebud mouth peeping out.
To say Emily was hard fought for is an understatement. Since the arrival of son Cornelis eight years ago (to former husband and coach Chris Rawlinson), Jana has lost more babies than she cares to recall, admitting she almost gave up on having a second child.
To read more about Jana Pittman’s amazing story, pick up a copy of this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale 18th May 2015.
