EDITOR’S NOTE: Although The Daily has a policy that prohibits using anonymous sources in most circumstances, editors decided it would be appropriate to grant anonymity to a freshman who gave birth in the dorms Thursday in order to protect the young woman’s privacy.
An hour and a half of labor pains was all the warning one University College freshman received before she gave birth to her baby in Walker Tower Thursday morning.
The mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said she did not know she was pregnant until she was delivering her baby in the resident’s shared suite bathroom. She said there were no noticeable changes in her weight or her menstrual cycle that would indicate she was pregnant.
At around 4:10 a.m. Thursday, the mother woke in pain.
Her roommate said she woke when she heard the mother’s painful gasps. The mother went to the bathroom, where she stayed alone until about 5:30 a.m., when the roommate went into the bathroom and discovered the mother giving birth.
“The child wasn’t completely born when I walked in,” the roommate said.
The roommate said the baby was born at 5:38 a.m. After unwrapping the umbilical cord from around the baby’s neck and clearing its throat, the roommate said she handed the newborn to its mother and called 9-1-1. The paramedics arrived by 6 a.m.
“It took, I thought, way too long for the paramedics to get here,” the roommate said.
The roommate said though they made a lot of noise, no other residents from the hall came to see what was going on. She said the resident adviser did not know anything was happening until the mother and her baby were wheeled out on a stretcher to the ambulance.
The mother, her baby and the roommate were taken to Norman Regional Hospital, where the roommate stayed with the mother until her family arrived.
The roommate plans to become an obstetrician physician’s assistant, and said the experience, though scary, helped her realize she has a passion for the work.
“I had never experienced anything like that before,” she said. “It just confirmed that was what I want to do.”
Her first patient said she supports her roommate’s decision to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant.
“I think she’d be great at it,” the mother said.
The mother and baby are at home with the girl’s family. The mother said she is unsure of her plans for the remainder of the semester.
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size
Print Story
Mail to Friend
More Stories
Comments
What?!?!
How can you be unaware that you are pregnant, all the way to birth? This makes little sense, and is quite surprising. Even if you have enough weight to actually hide the outward visible signs of pregnancy, surely there must have been other physiological hints. Morning sickness, unusual cravings, and heightened emotional reactions for example.
I hope she didn't drink or smoke during the past nine months, given that she had no real notice to avoid those things.
So did this roommate go potluck when she came to the dorms?
This girl is lucky JuicyCampus shut down when it did. Her name would be everywhere.
It is not unknown for situations like this to occur, so really we shouldn't be speaking negatively about the girl in question. What we should question is why the newspaper thought it necessary to report on this and use anonymous sources. If you have to go anonymous, you probably shouldn't do the story. This is a private matter and should not be in the newspaper.
either she is too busy with school and hasnt taken anytime to notice changes (slight and/or dramatic) to her body or she has been in complete denial over being pregnant... hopefully the baby was born healthy
I've heard of this happening to women but it was quite shocking to see that this happened to a freshman on campus. I did think it was weird that none of the other girls on the hall came to check on them .. And was 20 minutes as quick as the ambulance could get there?
I just think it was a blessing that the roommate was there - hopefully the girl and the baby will be ok and healthy
The reality of the situation is that, while it is not usually the case, a mother CAN be unaware that she is pregnant. There are countless medical studies, and no, it does NOT always have to be a larger girl for this to happen. The discovery channel just did a comprehensive study on this a few weeks ago.
As for those of us who actually know who the young woman is, including her friends who have known her since diaper days, there were no signs. It is incredibly irresponsible and quite frankly, absurd, for individuals who did not know this young woman to speculate on whether she knew or not.
As a friend of the mother, I can personally vouch that there were no signs of the pregnancy. She looked the same the night before as she did at the beginning of the fall semester. Thankfully, she does not drink or smoke. Her and her baby are both perfectly healthy.
I believe the focus of this news story should have been on the lack of response and utter negligence from the other girls on her floor, especially from her suitemates. I over heard them talking the day after about how they had heard everything, yet they still did nothing to help. Other girls on the hall echoed this and told me the suitemates had said this to them as well. If there was a woman giving birth in your bathroom, would you sit around, listen to the commotion, and refuse to come out to a least call 911?
Is it possible to continue to menstruate while pregnant? Missed period for 6 months? Bun is in the oven! Next time use a condom, it will help avoid the suprise birth. Maybe a baby name book would be a nice gift.
Get Maury. Who dat fatha be?
The title of the piece is a bit understated, no?
Whens the baby shower?!
First, how dare any of you judge the situation, or the mother without fully being informed or understanding the predicament?! I know it must seem unheard of to be pregnant and not know it, but the reality of it is, that its possible and happened in this case. Secondly, what makes any of you think that this small segment in The Daily is fully what happened!? Obviously there's more to it. It is a shame that something this personal was put in the paper, but once again accusations are being made that shouldnt be. The story was collected from the OU PD and the mother and roommate deemed it necessary to control the content of the story by agreeing to an interview, (so The Daily wouldnt find other sources to pull from that might have inaccurate information or give too much). Thankfully, mom and baby are doing wonderfully, she was not in any way on drugs or drank during the duration of the pregnancy. And yes, the roommate and mother were put together by potluck.
Hey coldsader89, you know whats incredibly irresponsible and quite frankly, absurd, for individuals to not know that their pregnant and give birth to a child in a dorm bathtub.
I hope she named the baby Walker
To Anonymous: I apologize wholeheartedly for not possessing the clairvoyance you seem to have. If you don't know you are pregnant, why would you have warning to go to the hospital? I believe it has been quite bluntly stated by several other commenters that the typical signs of pregnancy were simply not present. Are you suggesting we should have periodically put our ear to her belly...just because? I don't really see the merits to that argument.
@ another clever anonymous commenter: I truly hope you do not believe that condoms are 100% reliable in preventing pregnancy, or for that matter, STDs. It would not be difficult to find a plethora of websites or to go down to Planned Parenthood, or even your friendly neighborhood pharmacy, and find this to be true.
I hope the mother and baby are doing well. I can't even BEGIN to imagine how it is to go through something like that.
I wanna know how she got any flippin sleep that last trimester? lol. If there's a secret to sleepin thru kicks,punches,stretches an hiccups from baby...i'd love to know for future reference. ;-)
As for new mom an baby, Blessed Be...motherhood is truly one of life's greatest joys.
The mother is very fortunate, and happy with the outcome of the situation. As for Anonymous, how was she suppose to "hold the baby in" for proper medical care to arrive, or to be rushed to the hospital if she didnt know? And since when did she give birth in the bathtub? I dont believe that was mentioned in the article, but nice accusation. I also dont believe that any of us know whether a condom was used or not, and ColdSader89 is correct, theyre not 100% reliable.
All she needs is support and privacy. I'm sure she will make the best decision for her baby with the help of friends and family.
Nice story OU. Way to not use named sources. This is not a news story.
I am obviously a little late in commenting, but I figure I should anyway.
Here is another screw up by OU Daily. This story should never have been published. I agree that if the mother wished to remain anonymous then the story should not have be written. The only thing the daily accomplished was to have the mother slammed with negative comments. She has access to this site, and I really do not think she needs the extra emotional stress when she reads all of these terrible things. You were not in the situation so you do not have the right to be so judgmental. I honestly do not care if the mother said it would be okay to write the article. OU Daily should know better than to ask anyway. If something like this happened to you, Miss Selanders, would you really want to be questioned about it...much less have an article about it in your school newspaper?
This is not the only time I have been disappointed in OU daily. Last year, they published a story about me. 1) I never said most of the things that the ignorant writer said I did. 2) Without my permission, the writer put which tower I was living in at the time. The article they ended up writing gave 3 news casts the information they needed to WAIT for me outside my tower, which resulted in a week of hell for me. The story should have been kept quiet...just like this one.
**Congratulations to the mother. Having a child is a blessing. Hope all is well**
I just saw a specialty on TLC that happened this exact same time with a college freshman...same story and everything. Her name was Elizabeth. Is this the same girl? Apparently she's not so anonymous now, if so :)
There's also a whole series about not knowing you were pregnant on TLC, so for anyone who doesn't believe it..this show is a good one to watch.
How come this is possible? I am surprised rather better to say that I am pretty much shocked......
How come a woman be unaware of her pregnancy,there are many ways to diagnose.
And what about the menstural cycle is it possible......
Well, congrats to Mother on her successful delivery.....
It is obviously possible to be pregnant without knowing it. There is a full series on TLC about it. I would like to think I would know if I was but I guess you can never be sure. If this girl did do an episode for the TLC show, which I heard she did, she obviously wasn't to worried about keeping the situation private. Regardless, the OU Daily is a complete joke and embarrassment on OU's campus. They write completely falsified stories and are more of a gossip column than news outlet. They are constantly apologizing and retracting stories and I do think this story was unbelievably inappropriate to be published. I understand the mother doing an interview simply to have some control over what was written since the Daily is known for their inaccuracy and all around stupidity when it comes to writing stories.
I hope the baby and mother continue to do well. Congratulations.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.