‘Tim caught him’: Ch 7 newsreader Kendall Gilding details unusual birth story

She is used to being poised in front of the camera but this TV star had to find another way to stay calm. READ THE FULL REPORT

Her baby boy’s arrival into the world may have been a little unconventional but Kendall Gilding says it’s exactly what she hoped for.

The Channel 7 newsreader gave birth to son, Moses Timothy, standing in the shower at Mater Mother’s Hospital in South Brisbane with her husband, Tim Morgan, there to “catch” their newborn.

“I only had a three hour active labour which is awesome and he was born in the shower and Tim was able to catch him,” she said.

“I was in the shower facing the wall and Tim was behind me kneeling on the floor … he was down there with the midwife ready to go and waiting to see what we were having.

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“Then Tim caught him, lifted him up to my chest and looked up to me and said ‘it’s Moses’ … we didn’t know what we were having but we definitely knew if it was a boy that is what he’d be called.

“It was pretty special.”

Kendall Gilding and baby Moses. Picture: Tara Croser.

Gilding gave birth to Moses on September 28 at 41 weeks and one day, over a week overdue and two days before her birthday.

She was induced at the hospital and then, she jokes, went for a walk with Tim along the river at South Bank, watched an episode of Farmer Wants a Wife and waited for active labour to begin.

It was the perfect distraction, she says, to ease her anxiety after a ‘traumatic’ birth experience with her first child, Olive, now three, who was conceived via IVF in 2018 after a heartbreaking experience with infertility.

“I had quite a traumatic birth with Olive and it was not what I was hoping for and when the wheels came off the bus in the delivery room, it was scary,” she said.

“I was anxious going into this birth and I really wanted to try and have the birth I wanted with her.”

Kendall Gilding at home with husband Tim Morgan and one-week-old Moses. Picture: Tara Croser.

Mostly, she says, all went to plan and Gilding was able to have a drug free natural birth standing up.

“I wanted to have an active labour, it was important to me to be upright and I knew if I had an epidural that wasn’t going to be an option.”

After years of fertility struggles, heartbreak and an emotional rollercoaster to grow their family, Gilding reflects on her journey to become a mother.

“I said to Tim, ‘who possibly gets everything they ever dreamt of?’ because that’s how I feel, I feel very spoiled,” she said.

“We only want two kids, our family is now complete.

“You have the scans and everything checked but until they are here and you can see them and you know they are safe, it’s nerve-racking.

“Nothing beats that first cry and when they’re in your arms and you think, ‘we made it’.”