Mum delivers her own baby after watching YouTube tutorial
27 April 2018, 17:21 | Updated: 7 June 2018, 17:00
A woman who had no idea she was pregnant was forced to deliver her own baby in a hotel room with only YouTube for guidance.
Tia Freeman, 22, had to make a 17-hour stopover in Istanbul as she flew to Germany for a holiday from her home in Nashville, Tennessee - but she picked up more than just a few souvenirs... she returned home with a SON.
Sharing her outrageous real life story on Twitter, she explained how she had had no idea that she was pregnant until she had passed the six month mark, but decided to go ahead with her holiday regardless, assuming the baby would be born after she got home.
However, she went in to labour on the flight out of the US - but wrongly believed her twinges and contractions to be symptoms of food poisoning after eating Salmon as her in-flight meal.
After arriving at Istanbul airport and being trapped in a "chaotic" customs queue, she realised that in fact her baby was coming - but she was determined not to "give birth on the airport floor".
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Tia and baby Xavier, who she gave birth to alone in a hotel room in Turkey (Image: Twitter)
Posting under her username @TheWittleDemon, she wrote: "I make it to my hotel and now I’m sure I’m in labour. There is no way in the world I’m not in labour because I can barely standup at this point.
"So I’m in a foreign country, where no one speaks English, I don’t know this country’s emergency number, and I have no clue what to do.
“So yo it’s GAME TIME. I don’t have time to be nervous. It’s time to get s**t done. I spring into action. Filling up the tub with warm water #WaterBirth, grabbing a towel to bite down on, grabbing another towel to wrap him/her up with whenever it pops out It’s weird how focused a person becomes when they’re adrenaline starts going.
"Because at no point ever did I freak out. Like I just did what I had to do."
To make sure she was doing what she really had to do, Tia made the very "millennial" decision to watch some YouTube videos about how to do a DIY birth.
She continued: "So anyway. I strip down and climb in the tub. The internet said there were a couple positions that people find the most comfortable. I picked the one that worked for me and I was like okay BOOM let’s birthed this baby.
"The internet said I shouldn’t start pushing until my contractions where 2 mins apart because you don’t want to exhaust yourself too early and then not have any energy when the kid's ready to come, you know?
"And I’m like okay you’ve got a timer on your phone. You can do this!
"My contractions were already at a minute a part lol I was late as hell. I BARELY made it to my room.
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Baby Xavier's middle name is 'Ata' as a tribute to his Turkish birthplace (Image: Twitter)
"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?!
"Luckily it happened pretty quickly. I only had to push about 5-6 times before a baby popped out. Lol now let me tell you babies are buoyant. That little joker said bloop and floated right on up to the top of the water."
Tia later cut her son's umbilical cord using a shoelace, a pocket knife and a kettle, which might be the most MacGyver ending to a childbirth story ever.
After sleeping for five or six hours with her baby - now named Xavier Ata - Tia returned to the airport to ask for advice, and was promptly taken to hospital where both her and the baby were given a clean bill of health.
She then called her mum who had no idea she was pregnant before enjoying a luxurious two week stay in Turkey, a push present from Turkish Airlines as a thanks for all the free publicity her story generated for them.
