Shocking moment influencer gives birth on livestream as 30,000 people watch
An influencer typically known for streaming herself playing video games ended up livestreaming the moment she gave birth, with an audience of thousands watching along online.
In the movie The Truman Show, the producers started showing the titular character right from the moment of his birth, and now someone's made it a reality.
Twitch streamer Fandy normally plays World of Warcraft and League of Legends, but on 7 October her daily stream had her giving birth to her newborn daughter, Luna.
Writing on social media before the stream, she announced: "Hi Twitter my water just broke, so I think I'm going this live. Baby time :)"
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For the next few hours, she livestreamed herself going into labour and giving birth on Twitch to an audience of at least 30,000 people.
Husband Adam, a midwife and several of the couple's friends were in attendance to be with Fandy (real name Cady) as she gave birth, with the first few hours involving contractions before she went through a home birth in an inflatable pool.
Once it was all over, Adam said 'thanks for watching guys' and described the livestream as an 'insane experience' as he thanked everyone who showed up for the 'team effort'.
Among those giving the streamer their congratulations was Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, who wrote: "Fandy, best of luck and congratulations. Wishing you the best in this journey."
Given that it was a livestream, there was a live chat going on as well, which Fandy was seen checking at several points when she was in labour.
There was plenty of debate over whether or not she should have been livestreaming herself giving birth, though, given the personal thumbs up from the Twitch CEO, it's unlikely she'd face any sort of official backlash from the platform.
Lots of viewers commented 'PUSH' in all caps, somewhat superfluous advice considering there were midwives present to tell Fandy what to do.
Once the baby was born, the chat was a flurry of heart emojis, and then they watched her deliver the placenta.
Some folks reacting to the livestream weren't the biggest fans, saying it was 'f**king weird' for someone to livestream themselves giving birth.
Someone else called it 'weird AF' while a third decided that this was a case of 'the less I know the better'.
A few folks even threw around the word 'dystopian', though one person said it wasn't 'the worst thing I've seen a streamer do' and said they hoped it all went well.
Posting on social media afterwards, Fandy said she was 'very grateful for the amount of people who tuned in to share the special moment with us' and said that there had been 'TONS' of documented births.
She said: "I did not do it for the 'money'. Neither me nor Bryan asked for subs, made goals, or really even acknowledged bits (as much as we appreciate you guys)…we were busy.
"I’m not sure I even had alerts on. Ads were lowered to minimal levels like they always are and not raised.
"And seeing as how this isn’t going to be my everyday content, it wasn’t about building a new audience. She was not used for my personal gain, I was sharing something personal and in doing so making a memory I’ll never forget."
Topics: Twitch, Parenting, Social Media
Joe Harker