Everyone deserves to be cheered, but there are some babies that deserve extra attention.
Talking about babies born to parents in extraordinary, unusual, or unexpected circumstances is what we mean.
Recent months saw a surprise in the lives of one infant. In a “cryptic”, unplanned pregnancy, a 10-year old helped her mom to give birth at her home. Several babies could not wait until their due dates for unexpected entries in surprising places.
These are 12 of the most inspiring and unusual birth stories for 2022.
1. A college student graduated and gave birth — on the same day
When pregnant Dillard University student Jada Sayles’ learned that her May 14 graduation ceremony would be taking place on her due date, she didn’t take the coincidence too seriously — until her contractions.
The criminal justice major packed her cap & gown before she headed to Ochsner Baptist Medical Center. This was handy for Sayles when she delivered Easton.
Sayles didn’t attend her graduation ceremony. Walter Kimbrough (ex-president of the university) drove her to the hospital and performed a mock ceremony in her room.
“Congratulations. You may approach the bed and receive your degree,” Kimbrough said in a video Ceremony.
Sayles, 22, told TODAY.com that her special date was “surreal”.
“I remember being so worried and sad because I wasn’t able to walk across the stage and be acknowledged by my university, only to be acknowledged by millions of people across the world,” she says. “It’s amazing, I’m so proud of myself.”
Sayles accepted recently a job as a Texas care coordinator for ex-criminals. She will be attending Tulane University online next spring to earn her master of public administration.
Sayles claims that Easton, who is now seven months old, is the “happiest baby”. “He’s always laughing and smiling,” she says. “He can sit up now and he’s starting to crawl, although it’s backwards! He is my best friend.”
2. A mom delivered her own baby on the side of the road — with her five other kids in the car
Heather Skaats from Kentucky was driving with her five children, when labor began three weeks earlier than expected.
“I was having light contractions before we left, so I figured I had time to run an errand,” Skaats told TODAY.com in May.
Eventually, Skaats was forced to stop and deliver her baby on the side of the road — not the home water birth she had envisioned.
“I pulled over — assured the kids that everything was OK — and then I grabbed my phone and got out of the van,” Skaats said.
Before her water broke, she squatted.
“I put my hand down there and his head started coming out with his body,” she said. “I didn’t even have to push. It was so fast. I was on the phone with my husband, Nick, and 20 seconds later, I was like, ‘He’s here!'”
Skaats wrapped her baby in a blanket to keep him close as she drove home.
She said, “I believe the children were in shock.” “They were quite quiet.”
Skaats met with her midwife at home and gave birth to the placenta.
“I think having home births in the past sort of taught me to trust my body,” Skaats said. “Knowing the process really helped.”
3. A teenager lifeguard assisted a mother during labor at a YMCA swimming pool.
Natalie Lucas, a Colorado teenager lifeguard, had an unplanned day at work when a mother gave birth on the pool’s deck.
“I’ve always seen childbirth in movies and the TV shows, but never the real thing. It was definitely eye-opening,” Lucas told TODAY.com in August.
Matthew Jones and Tessa Rider, a pregnant YMCA member, were both at the pool that morning. Rider was floating on a pool noodles when the baby came.
Jones replied, “She looks up at me and says, ‘We need to get out of here,’” Jones said. “Tessa has barely made it out of the pool, she’s like two, three steps from the rail. She’s on all fours and she’s visibly in pain and also in the middle of the contraction.”
Rider began “crawling out of the pool,” according to Lucas, and it was clear that birth was imminent.
TODAY.com spoke with Lucas about how her adrenaline kick-in.
“I start … trying to support her and make sure she’s comfortable,” the lifeguard said.
Rider gave birth on the pool deck to Tobin, a baby boy.
“There’s a funny picture of me sitting back-to-back with her so she could put her weight on me to support her and give her some relaxation and calm,” Lucas told TODAY.com. “I was trying to help in any way I can.”
4. A 10-year-old girl delivered her mother’s baby.
Miracle Moore, fourth grade, called 911 to assist her mother in giving birth at home in Jennings Missouri.
Miracle stated to Scott Stranghoener that she believed Miracle was in labor.
Miracle communicated Stranghoener’s instructions to her mom, Viola Fair: “Don’t sit on the toilet” and “Mama, they said lay on your back in the center of the bed or on the floor.”
She grabbed towels to help with the birth and opened the door for emergency personnel.
Miracle’s little sister Jayla was born. Jayla cleaned Miracle’s nose and covered her with a blanket.
“She was really helpful,” Fair told NBC news affiliate KSDK of Miracle’s efforts. “I am very thankful.”
5. Mother’s Day was celebrated with a baby born in an elevator at a hospital
Texas’s pregnant woman gave birth in an elevator at a hospital instead of in the delivery room.
On Mother’s Day (May 8), Betzabeth Perez and her partner, Adolfo Soto, rushed to Medical City Dallas when her labor started. Eli Davila, a security guard, greeted them and directed them to use the elevator to get to the maternity ward.
Perez said that the pain was intense, but that it was not unbearable. The baby could not wait to get out of bed. Perez was helped to a wheelchair and admitted to the hospital while Soto searched for parking.
“I push her in the elevator. I look down and see that the baby is crowning and ready to come out,” Davila stated to NBC News Now.
A hospital security camera captured two people entering and three exiting the elevator. Baby Mia joined them.
“Eli’s quick assessment and willingness to help a patient in need takes ‘other duties as assigned’ to a new level and speaks to our colleague’s commitment to delivering excellent care,” Jay DeVenny, chief executive officer at Medical City Children’s Hospital and Medical City Women’s Hospital Dallas, said in a statement shared by NBC Dallas Fort Worth.
Perez stated to Davila that he wished to thank him for everything in the NBC News Now interview.
Davila said, “I’m very happy to be part of Mia’s life now, and hopefully for a long while.”
6. A mother gave birth in mid-air while flying on a plane.
Shakeria Martin, a 37-week-old pregnant passenger, woke up with contractions on a January redeye flight to Orlando. Her first thought was:
“This cannot be, there’s no way I could just have this baby on the plane,” Martin told TODAY’s Sam Brock.
Martin was helped by Frontier Airlines crew members to the toilet. Diana Giraldo, flight attendant called for an ambulance and pulled out her sweater to give as a baby blanket. Giraldo reached down and grabbed Martin’s baby with her naked hands after Martin’s water burst while she hovered above the toilet.
Giraldo tells TODAY.com that she found her daughter unresponsive and turned blueish.
She bent the newborn face down over her knee at a slight incline, then rubbed and delivered light blows to the baby’s back, before turning her over and switching to chest compressions, while Martin held an oxygen mask over her daughter’s face.
TODAY.com’s Giraldo says that while flight attendants have been trained in infant CPR, there is no protocol for delivering babies by themselves. I did my best with what resources I had, as per my training and personal reasoning.
Martin was assisted by a nurse to deliver his placenta while the pilot made an emergency landing at Pensacola International Airport, Florida.
Martin, whose children are 9 and 7, and 2 years old, tells TODAY.com in a follow up interview that she is grateful to the flight crew for helping her daughter Jadalyne Sky, now 11 months, (named after her birthplace).
Martin says that most passengers were awake during the birth. However, they cheered on the couple as they were wheeled off the plane in a wheelchair. Martin said, “It was like watching a movie.”
7. A 46-year-old woman was able to overcome all odds and give birth to identical triplets.
Utah parents Audrey and Tyler Tiberius wanted more children, but at 41, Audrey was told by doctors that she had a 10% chance of conceiving using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Three rounds IVF had failed.
Then, when Audrey was 46, she got pregnant naturally — with identical triplets. In March, “miracle” babies Sky, River and Bay were born, delivered six weeks early via emergency C-section.
“Most experts put the odds of identical triplets at one in 200 million births,” Audrey, now 47, told TODAY.com in September. I spoke to a statistician. It seems that the odds of identical triplets occurring in 45-year-olds is one in 20 million.”
The four older Tiberius children — Marcus, 13, James, 11, Christian, 9, and Max, 7 — love their three baby brothers “like crazy,” Audrey tells TODAY.com.
She said that “the boys are great helpers, heating bottles and changing diapers, playing cuddly with the baby’s faces, and making them laugh.” It warms my heart to witness the love and pure joy that has been pouring into our family since the arrival of the triplets. They are a wonderful gift.”
She adds, “Seven boys still feels surreal.” “Like all worthwhile things in life, it’s hard and wonderful raising kids. I’m convinced that big families are the world’s best kept secret. Motherhood is toughest job you’ll ever love.”
8. An obstetrician gave birth inside a car — and it was caught on camera
Dr. Gabriela Correia is a Brazilian obstetrician. She gave birth in a car stopped at a gas station.
Correia gives birth in an Instagram video posted Oct. 24, 2014. (Warning: Don’t click if you don’t want to see a woman giving life. This link), with her husband Gilberto Godoy, doula Joana Nunes, obstetrician-gynecologist Larissa Gomes and photographer Deborah Ghelman.
“There was no fear, only joy,” Ghelman told TODAY.com in translated Portuguese in October, adding, “everyone was well prepared.”
Correia said to globo local news outlet that she and her husband did not know about the baby’s sexual habits until Artur was born. He joined their older son Dante.
“Everyone involved in the birth had been with me through difficult times. I went through the loss of my first child, and it was very painful,” Correia told globo. “They were with me and supported me during that process. So, it’s a long journey I’ve had with them.”
Ghelman says that she was a photographer and has never seen anything like the day that happened.
She said, “Births can happen in unexpected places every day.” I believe the most touching thing about this story is the peace and tranquility of all those involved. It is a natural life with prepared and balanced people. It is possible to live in the moment and watch life unfold.
9. Two years apart, twin siblings were born in the same year.
Fraternal twins Aylin and Alfredo Trujillo were born 15 minutes apart — in 2021 and 2022.
Fatima Madrigal and Robert Trujillo welcomed their babies at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California. Alfredo Antonio arrived at 11 :45 p.m. Dec. 31, 2021 and Aylin Yalanda was born at midnight Jan. 1, 2022.
“It caught me by surprise,” mom Fatima Madrigal told TODAY.com in January. “I was due January 16.”
The hospital stated on Facebook that twins with different birthdays are very rare and that one in two million twins could be born in different years.
TODAY.com spoke to Dr. Ana Abril Arias who is a Natividad Medical Group Family Doctor and was a member of the delivery crew. She said that they had made jokes about the possibility of the twins having been born in different years.
“When the baby boy delivered, we waited because these babies were in separate bags,” she said. “Baby girl was higher, so we waited for her to come down a little. We broke the bag of water and let the baby decide when she can safely come out.”
10. A grandmother gave birth to the baby of her son-in-law and daughter-in law.
A 56-year-old grandmother, who was a gestational sacrificial carrier for her son and daughter in law, gave birth to a healthy baby.
In November, Nancy Hauck delivered baby girl Hannah for her son, Jeff, and his wife, Cambria. Cambria was not able to carry a pregnancy when she developed placenta increta after their second set of twins were born and she had a hysterectomy.
The couple had still unused embryos from fertility treatment.
“I could just feel this calling to offer to carry for them,” Nancy told TODAY.com in September.
Cambria was onboard with the idea.
“When Nancy came to us, I know most people would probably be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy,’ but it didn’t feel like that,” she told TODAY.com. “There was just so much peace surrounding the whole conversation, and around the entire experience.”
Nancy was approved by doctors for pregnancy. Hannah was born in November. Cambria posted a picture of her mother-in law on Instagram and praised her for being “amazing” in every way.
Cambria told TODAY.com that Hannah is doing incredible. “She is perfect and sweet. We are so grateful she’s here and feel so blessed to have her in our family.”
Nancy, who refers to Hannah as “Sweet Little Love”, says that Hannah is a “treasured miracle” and “will always remain a treasured wonder to me and our family.” She also said, “I would do this for any of mine grandchildren.”
11. Hours after discovering she was pregnant, a woman gave her birth.
Illinois foster parents experienced the shock of learning they were expecting — and the baby would be arriving within hours.
Kelsie Garlic and Nicci Garlic had been trying unsuccessfully for eight year to have biological kids.
Nicci was concerned that she may have an appendicitis or kidney stone. She was discovered to be 34 weeks pregnant at the hospital.
The couple did not know that Nicci was pregnant because she hadn’t had her period in years.
“Against all the odds, this miracle happened,” Kelsie told TODAY.com in February. “I was overwhelmed.”
TODAY.com reported that “cryptic pregnancies” are uncommon and high-risk. They are when a woman isn’t aware that they are pregnant. Charlie was prematurely born to them.
Kelsie shared that “as soon as he heard his little cry, I knew everything would go well,” Kelsie told TODAY.com. “The nurses brought him over for a second, but he looked up at my face with these big eyes. This was one the most amazing moments of my entire life.”
Kelsie said their young foster children were delighted about their new brother, saying, “It’s kind of a fight over who gets to hold him.”
12. A doctor delivered the baby of Hurricane Fiona to a woman
Dr. Zaskia Rodra, an OB-GYN from Ponce, Puerto Rico continued her work even after Hurricane Fiona.
Rodriguez received a phone call in September from a pregnant patient.
“She said she was in pain since 7 a.m., and was having bleeding and spotting,” Rodriguez told TODAY.com. “I told her she needed to go to the hospital.”
Rodriguez drove in the midst of the storm to visit her patient at hospital.
“Everything was dark — there were no lights; no electricity,” she said. “It was raining and windy — I was scared.”
After five hours, Rodriguez’s patient welcomed a baby girl. “It was a beautiful delivery,” she said.
Rodriguez said, “How do I care for my baby if there is no electricity or running water?” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s the worst part — when they go home and they face all the limitations.”
Rodriguez’s clinic had no running water or power. Her generator ran out of fuel while she was treating one patient. Her own home was also without power.
Rodriguez told TODAY.com in a follow up interview that electricity and water had been restored to her clinic after two weeks. She also said that a generator was now fully functional. Rodriguez’s home is now also powered.
“My patients are doing well,” she says. “A couple of them lost their homes and their baby’s clothing as a result of the storm, but we as a community are helping them to get back to normal.”
She says that the medical community is still in trouble.
She says, “We are overwhelmed by patients.” “It is a sad fact, but we are taking proper care of our patients despite all the limitations.”
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This article originally appeared on TODAY.com
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