A California woman showed up to her local hospital having contractions and already 5 centimeters dilated. Doctors told her she could be admitted, even though there was no guarantee on when the baby would come, or she could walk around the neighborhood or labor at home for a while.
She chose to go home … and 30 minutes after she arrived back to her house, she gave birth to her baby.
"I was in shock," Shayanna Markham said of the events that unfolded. She also added that she felt pressured to go home, which is why she made the choice to do so.
Shayanna's sister gathered clips from the couple's security cameras and posted a video to TikTok to try to bring awareness to what happened.
“When your sister is 5 centimeters dilated and they send her home and she has the baby at home 30 minutes later,” the caption read. The video has garnered over 14 million views.
On the video, you can see Shayanna and her husband, Anthony Markham, arriving home and walking through the front door. Shayanna is walking slowly, and places her hand on her hip as if to soothe some pain. Shortly after, Anthony is seen going back outside, carrying bags to load the truck for their return to the hospital. And a few minutes later, he's running back to the truck to grab his phone to call 911 because the baby's head was coming out.
“There was no stopping her from coming out,” says Shayanna. “I got really quiet — there was no screaming. I pushed and then caught my daughter.” The rest of the video shows EMTs arriving and Shayanna and her newborn baby being placed in an ambulance and taken away to the hospital.
“I was only 37 weeks pregnant, so I was scared,” Shayanna said of the experience. “The doctor assured me that if we left, there would still be time to get an epidural. She took off the monitors and said I could get dressed. I felt pressured [to leave].”
In a statement from the hospital, a spokesperson said: “Our first priority is always the safety of our patients. While we can’t speak to this specific event due to patient privacy, deliveries do happen unexpectedly on occasion. We recognize the families and thank the first responders who are able to manage these situations. We take our patients’ concerns seriously and when we learn of concerns, we follow up to apologize, listen and respond.”
Shayanna and Anthony's daughter, Harper, spent some time in the NICU, and was eventually released to go home with her family. "It's bittersweet," Shayanna shared. "I am frustrated that the birth happened this way but I am happy that my daughter is OK. It could have been worse."
People in the comments section shared their surprise about the situation.
"That is INSANE they sent her home at 5cm!" someone commented.
"Why do hospitals do this it's so dangerous & now you have an ambulance bill on top of everything," wondered another person.
