baby

Woman delivers her own baby watching YouTube videos.

A woman has unexpectedly delivered her own baby while she was alone in a hotel room in Turkey. And she used how-to videos on YouTube to do it, proving that there’s nothing a woman (with wifi) can’t achieve.

Tia Freeman, 22, a member of the U.S. Air Force, from Nashville, Tennessee, told her story on Twitter:

In her third trimester, Freeman travelled to Germany. She had only discovered her pregnancy in January, according to BuzzFeed, but she had already booked her vacation.

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“I was in shock,” Freeman told HuffPost. “I never saw myself as a mom before. I was more career-oriented. That’s probably why I was in denial after finding out.”

On March 7, Freeman travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, on her way to Germany. After eating a meal on the plane, she began to feel ill (as many of us do), but didn’t think that was unusual. When she landed in Istanbul, she realised it could be more serious…like labour.

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In shock, and all alone in a foreign country, Freeman checked into her hotel, and immediately began searching YouTube for videos on how to deliver your own baby.

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Freeman later explained to The Independent her reason for not going to hospital:

“Not many people spoke English that I encountered at first,” Freeman told the Independent. “I didn’t know what the country’s emergency number was and I didn’t know how my insurance would work overseas so I just decided to DIY it.”

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Fortunately, her airforce training ensured she was able to maintain a steady head, despite her heart racing.

Freeman explained that inspired by the videos she was watching, she got two towels (one for her baby, the other to bite onto while she pushed), and filled the bathtub with warm water. Her research told her to push once her contractions were a minute apart.

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Within only a few pushes, her baby boy  “popped out” and “floated right on up to the top of the water,” according to Freeman.

The next step was cutting the umbilical cord. Again, her research told her to boil her shoelaces to sterilize them, so she could use them as clamps to cut the cord.

As any woman who’s given birth can imagine, the bathroom needed cleaning because, in Freeman’s words, “it looked like the set of a horror movie.”

And then finally, after all of this, Freeman went to bed with her newborn son.

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The next day brought a different challenge when Freeman attempted to board her flight to Germany at the airport, with officials thinking she was performing some tiny human trafficking:

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Once the situation was understood, airport staff were very supportive. According to BuzzFeed, they even contributed to Freeman deciding a name for her baby: Xavier Ata.

“The ladies at the airport who helped me said that he should have a Turkish name,” Freeman told BuzzFeed. “So I asked them for a cute boy name and they suggested Ata.”

Source: Tia Freeman
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Eventually, Freeman was taken to the U.S. Embassy in Turkey, where Xavier was issued a birth certificate and a passport.

And finally, Freeman agreed to go to hospital for herself and Xavier to be examined. In fact, the holiday in Germany was abandoned, and mother and son remained in Istanbul for two more weeks, courtesy of Turkish Airlines.

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Astonishingly, the mum didn't even immediately notify her family.

“They all found out a couple days after he was born," Freeman said.

A glowing Freeman with little Xavier. Source: Tia Freeman

Sounds like this Boss Mum didn't really need anyone, anyway.