(NaturalNews) A woman living in Australia was so determined to avoid spending time in the hospital, that she actually gave birth in a rainforest stream.

When she was pregnant with her fourth child at age 39, doctors told Simone Thurber that her pregnancy would be high-risk. She says she decided to follow her gut and shun the unwelcoming hospital environment in favor of giving birth the way women have for thousands of years – outside in nature.

Thurber says she is not "a hippy drippy mum," but she did not want her child to be born surrounded by beeping machines and the overall cold atmosphere found in a hospital. She points out that women have been giving birth out in the wild for many thousands of years. A birth in nature had long been her dream, and her partner Nick supported the idea. Thurber is a trained doula and birthing therapist, making her better prepared than most to deal with any issues that might have cropped up in the process.

The couple lived in Melbourne at the time, but they headed for a friend's house in the Daintree Rainforest area for the big day. The beach was her first choice, but a jellyfish infestation made that a poor option, so instead she found a stream nearby.

Her labor ended up taking longer than expected, but she eventually gave birth to a very healthy girl on a foam mat near the stream. Two hours later, she had birthed the placenta. She used part of it to make a smoothie and buried the rest by the stream in keeping with an aboriginal tradition of "giving back to the land."