Celebrity Parents Emilie de Ravin Talks Having a Home Birth with Her Son After Delivering Daughter at a Hospital "It's insane and then you look at pictures and you're like, 'How can your vagina do that?' " Emilie de Ravin said on the Informed Pregnancy podcast By Jen Juneau Jen Juneau Twitter Jen Juneau is a digital news writer for PEOPLE since 2016. People Editorial Guidelines Published on March 18, 2019 02:20 PM Share Tweet Pin Email A home birth may not have been in the cards for Emilie de Ravin when she delivered her first child with fiancé Eric Bilitch, but her second was a different story. Opening up about her two experiences on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast this week, the former Once Upon a Time actress recalled her concerns that she might have to go to the hospital to give birth again like she did with daughter Vera Audrey, now 3, after she suffered extreme back pain during that labor. “It was a vaginal birth. It was all fine,” says de Ravin, 37, of transferring to the hospital for her first child’s birth. “I got out of the hospital as soon as they could let me escape from the room and Vera was fine. I was fine.” The star admits that while “it wasn’t my idea of my perfect birth,” she was just thankful everyone was okay — and she learned a lot during the process about how others “diminish women’s emotions” in everyday life. “But especially during hormonal changes and during pregnancy and during postpartum and during the whole hormonal altering of one’s mind. It’s a real thing. It’s super serious. It’s something not to take lightheartedly and it’s all valid,” de Ravin says. “If you can’t relax your body and your mind, you’re not gonna have your baby at all.” Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Parents newsletter. Rachel Platten Recalls Switching Up Her Birthing Plan for Daughter Violet: “I Wanted to Feel It” With her son Theodore “Theo” Kubrick, now 3 months old, the Lost alum decided to try again — and ultimately had success in delivering in her bedroom, “off the side of the bed,” with some help from her husband after first spending time in a birthing tub. “It felt like I was pushing for so long. Actual [productivity]. Him coming out was, apart from obvious pain, it was a really cool experience,” she recalls. “It was … the main part of why I didn’t want to ever be medicated if I [could] help it. With Vera too, which I had to be.” “It was so nice to be able to just feel what your body is doing and what it can do and going through it with him, even though I know I was going through it with [Vera],” de Ravin adds. “Just being able to have … the physical and emotional connection at the same time. As opposed to just looking in a mirror, like I was with her.” RELATED VIDEO: Mom Delivers Baby Boy in Hospital Hallway After She Tells Her Husband to “Catch Him” “It’s insane and then you look at pictures and you’re like, ‘How can your vagina do that?’ ” she muses. “I didn’t tear with my daughter either, at all, and I didn’t tear with him. But how? It’s still fascinating to me. It really is.” The Australian actress announced Theodore’s birth on Instagram in December, alongside a sweet photograph of her fast-asleep newborn. “Welcome to the world beautiful boy!” de Ravin captioned her post. “We’re so excited you’re finally out here to play with us! We love you so so much Theo xoxoxo.” Wrote Bilitch alongside his post of the same photograph, “Mum was amazing, Vera is thrilled to be a big sister, and we’re all very in love with baby Theo!”