People were stunned.
A woman has gone viral after sharing the story of how she gave birth to her first child - which included YouTube, WikiHow, shoelaces and a pocket knife.
Tia Freeman gave birth her son, Xavier, while she was alone in a hotel room in Turkey on March 7.
She began the Twitter thread by explaining that she didn’t know she was pregnant until she was already in her third trimester, as the birth control she was on didn’t lead to her having a regular cycle and she hadn’t gained much weight.
She said that she was in denial for another month, and hadn’t even told anyone close to her.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988904772920139778
But since she had already booked tickets for a two week trip to Germany, she decided that as long as her baby didn’t arrive early, she would be fine to go overseas.
She began to cramp up on the Atlanta-to-Istanbul flight in early March, but she was convinced that it was simply food poisoning.
While she was waiting in the customs line, preparing for a 17-hour layover in Istanbul, they began to get worse.
Tia told how she began an online search for the early signs of labour, while still wondering if the pain was due to food poisoning.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988920938921189376
Once she had checked into her hotel, though, she became convinced that she was in labour.
She explained on Twitter that, “in true millennial form”, she turned to YouTube to figure out what to do.
And she recalled how by the time she had filled the tub halfway with water and laid down in it, Xavier was on the way.
She says that she only had to push “5 or 6 times” until the baby came out, quickly floating to the surface.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988925245124825088
However, as Tia explained, the placenta was still insider her and the umbilical cord was hanging.
Turning to the internet for advice, she ended up massaging it out by rubbing her pelvis.
She then began to research how to cut an umbilical cord, where she found a tutorial calling for clamps and scissors - which she didn’t quite have to hand.
Tia said that she ended up using the hotel room’s kettle to boil water to sterilise her shoelaces and her pocket knife.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988948866220347392
Exhaustion was beginning to set in at this point, so she breastfeed her little boy and cleaned up the bathroom as it “looked like the set of a horror movie.”
The next morning, she brought her own back to the airport with her.
When they learned that she had given brith the night before, the airport employees rang medical professionals to examine her.
The airline staff shuttled her to the United States Embassy in Istanbul, where she was able to apply for her son’s brith certificate and passport.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988945666566164481
According to
USA Today, she was advised not to travel with Xavier until he was two weeks old.
Tia added on social media that the airline offered to pay for her stay for the following two weeks.
