There are childbirth stories – and then there’s this.
A woman who gave birth alone in a hotel room has shared her story and it’s quite something.
Tia Freeman, a 22-year-old computer specialist in the US Air Force, was travelling by plane to Europe when she went into labour.
Tia had been in denial about being pregnant, she revealed on Twitter this week, having only found out she was expecting when she was already into her third trimester.
As her birth control suppressed her periods and she hadn’t gained any weight, she convinced herself that she couldn’t be pregnant and went about as normal, she said.
It was on a flight between the US and Istanbul that she began to feel a little off.
She thought that some salmon she’d eaten on the plane had made her ill but while going through customs in Istanbul she began to realise what was happening.
I’m literally gripping the railing trying to make it through the lines. At this point I feel like I’m about to pass out. I’m sweating. I feel like I have to vomit. I’m going through it. Then I’m like wait a minute bitch are you in labor?!!! pic.twitter.com/p6SMEfunP0
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 24, 2018
All alone and unaware of how to contact emergency services in Turkey, Tia got through the airport as quickly as she could and made her way to her hotel room.
She barely made it there before it was time to push and, with the aid of Google and Youtube, she gave birth to a little boy – without any pain relief – in the bath.
My contractions were already at a minute a part lol I was late as hell. I BARELY made it to my room. ??? so I throw the towel in my mouth and start pushing. And I have NEVVVVEEERRRR felt any pain like this in my life. I felt like I was being split open. WHERE WAS MY EPIDURAL?! pic.twitter.com/HGlootcNHu
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 24, 2018
Her ordeal was far from over, though – Tia knew from her Googling that her placenta was due to come next.
With her newborn sitting on her chest, she birthed the placenta on the toilet.
Her military training came in handy then – she used shoelaces as clamps and used the knife she travels with to cut her son’s cord.
Umbilical cord cut and I did a mighty fine job if I do say so myself ?! At this point exhaustion is beginning to set in. But I need to clean up the bathroom because it looked like the set of a horror movie pic.twitter.com/DyvlwXXeQ2
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 25, 2018
So I clean up the bathroom, breastfeed my baby, and go to sleep. No I do not go to the hospital I take my ass to bed. ?? so the next day I wake up for and get ready to go to the airport because I already paid for the cab the night before & even though I knew I couldn’t fly out
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 25, 2018
Tia went to the airport the next day to find out what she would need to travel with her new baby and came in for a lot of questions.
When I get there the airport workers are freaking out bc you can tell this baby is fresh. I legit didn’t have any baby clothes & made him something out of my favorite blue oversized button down (RIP ?). Anyway they thought I was a human trafficker trying to smuggle out a baby. pic.twitter.com/dc0BCDv75J
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 25, 2018
So they called in customs, the police, a doctor & a nurse (to check the baby & me to see if I actually gave birth), and the airline higher ups. I was bombarded with questions (naturally) but finally I proved that I wasn’t a trafficker. During this I called the @USEmbassyTurkey. pic.twitter.com/HH9zQybcHB
— Tia Freeman (@TheWittleDemon) April 25, 2018
Thankfully, all’s well that ends well. Tia and baby Xavier managed to get home to the US and are both doing well after one of the oddest childbirth scenarios we’ve ever heard of.
