The Apprentice’s Jessica Cunningham confirms she’s welcomed her FIFTH child via an ‘easy’ home birth

Jessica Cunningham has confirmed she welcomed her fifth child, a boy, via an ‘easy’ home birth last month.

The Apprentice star, 34, joked about ‘dancing her baby out’ as she discussed growing her family with her boyfriend Alex Daw in an interview on Jenny Powell and Kelly Pegg’s The Hot Mess Mums Club podcast.

Businesswoman Jessica also shares son Digby, two, with her partner, and has three older children – Poppy, eight, Olive, seven, and six-year-old Hattie – with her late ex Alistair Eccles.

On her experience giving birth the fifth time round, the careers coach said: ‘With my first birth, with Poppy, it was absolutely horrific, I was screaming, but with Olive and Hattie, my sister was my birthing partner and my sister is really fun.

‘She made sure I was laughing, gave me a little massage, and with every birth you kind of tweak it and make it better. 

‘Then with Digby I had started stepping into spirituality, learning more about energy, how our bodies work, and then something intuitively made me want to dance like a tribal woman.

‘I started dancing round and welcoming the pain, and then I visualised this wave pushing him out. So I remembered that and then with this one I danced the baby out and welcomed the pain and the contractions.’ 

Highlighting the benefits of home birth, the TV star added: ‘I have always given birth in a birth in a birthing pool, but this was my first home birth, I think because the baby is in water already and then they are going into water it makes the transfer a lot easier.

‘I think as well you don’t have the pressure of gravity at full force your body is just generally lighter. I was in more of a squat position, sort of like a reverse cowgirl, with my arms behind me.’ 

The CBB 2017 contestant went on to explain how she felt anxious about using the toilet shortly after giving birth.

On her changing body, Jessica candidly said: ‘I remember one part of my body that definitely wasn’t the same after giving birth and it was my a**. 

‘When I would be feeding and if you wouldn’t drink enough water during the day, the first poo in the morning would get stuck in your bum! 

‘I felt like I was going to die, it’s horrific. I would have to ring up my friends and say I have been stuck on the toilet for 20 mins feeling like there’s definitely something wrong down there.’

The medium also spoke about juggling her career with five children, admitting ‘it’s both beautiful and bloody stressful’.

She detailed: ‘It’s funny actually, so I took the baby to school to do the school run and Olive my middle daughter, one of her friends was like ”Wow you have a lot of children”.

‘I was just thinking how is an 8 year old telling me this. It was actually Alex, he didn’t have any kids before him and we started seeing each other, and then we talked about it and he’s such a dreamboat that he asked me would I have anymore children.

‘Whereas the reality of having five children is both beautiful and bloody stressful. They are amazing but one thing I have that tremendous parent guilt over is not being able to have that one on one time with them all the time.

‘I feel so guilty because they are all different ages and they all need me. Digby who is nearly 3 is at that really demanding age whereas like the girls are getting a bit older so they have different needs.’

Admitting she tends to wash her hair every three weeks, Jessica said: ‘I went for a walk this morning and I said to one of my friends the more children you have the more you make it your mission to not look like s**t. 

‘I don’t wash my hair for like 3 weeks and then it just doesn’t get greasy because I just don’t wash it. So my new born is 2 weeks tomorrow, the first week was horrific he just didn’t sleep at all.

I then started listening to this audiobook about magic words and how the words we speak create magic, so I thought I am going to try this so I said ”yeah he’s sleeping alright” and then he did start sleeping okay!’

The former pole dancer gushed over her beau, enthusing: ‘Alex, I must say, has been amazing, he’s a keeper, he was born to be a dad. The kids love Dudley and every 5 minutes I have one of them asking me if they can hold him. 

‘It’s brilliant but it drives me absolutely insane, I just have to beg them to let him sleep. Because we are so used to sharing each others time, I haven’t really noticed a massive difference, they just love having a new baby. 

‘The age transitions haven’t been too bad, 3-4 I found really difficult, and around that time I wanted to have another baby then I started thinking I don’t know if I can do this! 

‘Yeah around those ages really got me and then Alex really wanted to have another baby and I just didn’t think I had it in me and then literally within the first or second shot I was pregnant.’

The brunette surprised fans when she confirmed her pregnancy last October amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

On the challenging on expecting a child during the global crisis, she confessed: ‘I have been really fortunate because not much has really changed for me, I have still been able to work, I have enjoyed the time at home.

‘[But] all the kids being at home and homeschooling was a bit stressful but I was like to Alex we have to do something different. So I was pregnant and stressed, homeschooling just wasn’t practical.

‘I would rather take them for a walk, let them paint, let them do their math’s in their own time, sitting down homeschooling meant no-one was getting anything done. The birth was fantastic we had a little home birth and it was beautiful. 

‘But last year I got really engrossed in watching the news, reading alternative media and that sent me in a downwards spiral, but now I’ve just stopped reading the news, I turned the telly off and life is rosey!’  

Jessica confirmed the arrival of her fourth child, son Digby – her first with boyfriend Alex – in a sweet social media post in July 2018, as the beauty gushed about her ‘beautiful little rainbow baby.’ 

The couple tragically suffered a miscarriage in November 2017, while expecting their first child together. 

The heartbreaking news came a few weeks after she discovered she was pregnant, and just two months after the suicide of her ex-boyfriend Alistair.  

Former businessman Alistair, 35, who suffered from anxiety and depression, took his own life at a friend’s flat the day he was due to see his three daughters.

The couple had run fashion business Famous Frocks together but split up in 2014, when he was convicted of money laundering and given a 15-month suspended prison sentence.