Holby City's Jac reveals 'violent' birth of her own daughter
Rosie Marcel, the actress who plays Jac Naylor in the hospital TV drama, says birth wasn't like an episode of Holby
Holby City actress Rosie Marcel has talked about the details of giving birth to her baby girl just over a week ago. Rosie, who plays Jac Naylor in the BBC hospital drama, welcomed Beau Marcel Stacey, weighing 6lb 10oz on 21 January.
The TV doctor had a caesarean because of a rare blood disorder. "Beau's birth wasn't really like an episode of Holby City - not much!" she told Hello! magazine. Rosie reveals that despite having a team of 10 looking after her during the caesarean, it was a painful experience.
"Beau's hand and foot came out first and the surgeon had to turn her around to bring her out. It was pretty violent," she revealed. "Apparently I was very inappropriate and was shouting for drugs and screaming blue murder."
But there was a moment of relief when a consultant "walked into the operating theatre with the music from Holby playing in his pocket". The 37-year-old actress, who's played icy heart surgeon Jac in the TV drama since 2005, had to smile at that!
Last year, Rosie suffered a miscarriage just at the time that her character Jac was giving birth on the show.
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"It was the worst timing," she said at the time. "Because while my character was giving birth, I knew I was pregnant and had this feeling that it was going wrong.
"I certainly blamed myself because you think of all the things you've done wrong. As a woman, you feel like you've failed. I went down the rabbit hole, as others do. I felt terribly sorry for myself and it was difficult to pick myself up."
When Jac was ready, she and gym owner husband Ben Stacey started trying for a baby again, but each month she found she wasn't pregnant.
"I had done so many pregnancy tests during the eight months we'd been trying hard for a baby that I fully expected it to come back negative as it always did." Except this time it was positive - just 2 days before Jac was about to start IVF fertility treatment.
And now the new mum says she's determined to breastfeed her newborn wherever she is. "We all have a right to breastfeed and if anyone asks me to leave a restaurant, they'll get the Jac Naylor side of me," says Rosie. That would be a brave person indeed.
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