Australian actress Claire Holt says giving birth felt like 'torture'

Australian actress Claire Holt has opened up about the "torture" of giving birth to her first son, just one year after experiencing a heartbreaking miscarriage with husband Andrew Joblon.

In 2018, Holt suffered a miscarriage and was required to undergo a consequent dilation and curettage procedure, leaving the 31-year-old heartbroken.

Now, three months after welcoming her first child with Joblon, the The Originals star has explained how painful childbirth was for her on Thursday's episode of Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast. 

Explaining she had to have an inflatable balloon inserted inside her to induce her labour and help dilate her cervix, the new mum described her induction as "torture."

“It was so unbelievably painful for me and I feel like I have a pretty high pain threshold, in general,” Holt said, describing the experience like having a constant contraction for two hours.

“It was really tough for me. And at this point my husband and my sister were there with me in the hospital room. And of course they were filming me and thought it was hilarious and I was like, ‘No, I’m serious guys, this actually really hurts.’”

Despite her agony, Holt had hoped to have a non-medicated birth, wanting to experience the entire process without the help of any pain medication.

But in the moment the pain was far worse than she could've anticipated, and she slowly realised things might not go as planned.

"I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to white-knuckle it and I’ll be okay but this is crazy, like this is so painful for me,’” she said.

"I was like, ‘I can’t take this much more. This is unbearable. Like, maybe I’m just going to cancel the induction.’”

As her labour progressed. Holt's doctor decided to remove the balloon, as she had passed the point of needing it, which was a massive relief for Holt after almost seven hours with it in.

Though the removal itself was not fun, with Holt admitting she screamed when it came out, the relief was immediate once it was removed.

Holt wasn't out of the woods yet, however. Still struggling with severe pain as she continued with labour, her doctor encouraging her to take a warm shower to manage the pain, as it can act as a "natural epidural."

"And my husband said, ‘She just had a blowout. She’s not going to go in the shower," Holt joked, though she reluctantly agreed to ruin her hair.

But the relief the shower provided was brief, and once she got out Holt finally accepted that she couldn't bear the pain anymore.

"I remember just leaning on the bed and tears were streaming down my face. I couldn’t control it. … I was suffering," she confessed.

Holt asked for a walking epidural, which allowed her to still move around without feeling the overwhelming pain she was in, allowing her to progress smoothly through labour and eventually deliver her son, James, later that night.

She later shared the news on Instagram, posting a sweet photo with her baby boy on March 29, Joblon sharing his own photos of his stunning wife and child soon after.

“Everything they say is true. There is no love like it," Holt wrote at the time, while her husband praised his wife as his "hero."