Texas: Twitch streamer Fandy livestreams water birth, thousands tune in

A popular Twitch streamer has broadcast the birth of her first child as thousands of fans tuned in to watch the more than eight-hour ordeal.

Fandy, a 30-year-old Texas-based streamer, has a following of 370,000 on Twitch and is known for streaming herself playing video games. She also has 300,000 followers on Instagram.

On Wednesday, she started a livestream titled “Water Broke, Baby Time” during which she took fans along for each stage of her baby’s birth.

Twitch footage shows Fandy going into labour while inside a bath surrounded by six friends and two women who appear to be midwives.

Several of Fandy’s friends reach out to hold her hands as she pushes while the others look on from a couch.

As Fandy is pushing out the baby, the TV above her shows live comments from people who tuned in to watch her Twitch livestream.

“BIRTHATHON GOES CWAZY,” one Twitch user wrote.

“ALMOST THERE YOU GOT THIS PUSH,” another wrote, as Fandy was close to giving birth.

The livestream captured Fandy screaming in pain as she rested her head and arms over the side of the inflatable water pool.

After hours of labour, her baby Luna Rose was finally born, with fans celebrating in the comments of the livestream and some calling the newborn a “Twitch baby”.

“Congrats Fandy, what a beautiful baby girl welcome Luna to the world,” one fan wrote.

One fan took an opportunity to poke fun at another user.

“Baby already has more viewers than [username] ever will,” another commented.

On Thursday, Fandy posted a message to her followers on Instagram.

“Luna Rose born 2:45am Oct 8th @ 8lbs 1oz,” she wrote.

“I live streamed my birth to my community I had been streaming to for 10 years. I’m very grateful for the amount of people who tuned in to share the special moment with us, and incredibly grateful to my amazing friends who dropped everything that day to help support me through the whole thing!

She went on to say that she is not the first to have a documented birth.

“There are TONS of births that have been documented. This is no different from the thousands of them out there, it was just done in a live format, which showed the entirety of the birth process - the ugly and the not so pleasant parts included.”

She also addressed criticism that she did the livestream to make money.

“Secondly, 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.”