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WRGB morning anchor Olivia Jaquith spoke with her station about the attention she got after staying on the anchor desk while in the early stages of labor.
“I never thought it would go viral.” She said. “I was completely shocked.”
The decision to anchor a three hour newscast on the Albany, N.Y. CBS affiliate shortly after her water broke ended up getting coverage from The TODAY show, CBS Mornings, Inside Edition, The Colbert Show, Access Hollywood and news stations all over the world.
“I was kind of convinced I was not in labor it was just false contractions.” She said. “And I couldn’t really explain the gush of liquid.”
“It was funny because everybody, the producers, directors, they were all like, you’re leaving now, right? And then at the end our director, Donna, got in my ear and said it was the most stressful three hours of her life.” Jaquith laughs.
Jaquith said some folks thought she stuck around because of a lack of maternity leave. She said she would have done it even if she had six-months of maternity leave because she said she enjoys working and it was a good way to distract herself from childbirth.
Less than 24-hours after the newscast, she gave birth to baby Quincy.
