Just when I thought I'd truly heard it all, I read a story about a woman in China who went into labor nine days before she was due, and ultimately wound up giving birth to her baby girl after insisting on making a stop to use the bathroom on her way to the hospital. You know -- because she probably thought she was feeling pressure "down there" because she had to poop, not push the baby out! OMG.
This definitely isn't the first time a baby has been born in a restroom, but it is the first time I've heard about a baby being born in a public toilet pit. Yes -- a toilet pit, which is basically a small hole on the bathroom floor that you -- well, kind of squat and "hover" over in order to do your business.
If you still aren't getting a good visual of what I mean, then you'll get a much clearer picture after checking out the photo of the actual toilet pit where the little girl was born. It's not entirely primitive, but it's definitely not what we're used to here in the States. I did have the pleasure of using something similar in Paris once, and trust me -- it was no picnic. I can't imagine actually being hovered over that thing and pushing out a baby -- especially when I expected to be going #2!
After the woman gave birth, her husband called for help, and rescuers came and could see the baby lying in the pit and could hear the poor little thing crying too. They wound up ripping out the other pits nearby so that they could get the baby out. She was in there for about 30 minutes, and rescuers reported her as "a little pale and stiff."
Miraculously, the baby survived and is being monitored by doctors in the hospital for a little while longer just to make sure she is ok. Her aunt says that the family will bring her home as soon as the doctor says she's ready to go.
If nothing else, this story really makes you appreciate living somewhere with modern facilities, and up-to-date toilets, doesn't it? I think I'll be a little more appreciative and less whiny the next time I complain about having to put down toilet paper on a public seat before using it. Doing that sure beats giving birth (or pooping) into a hole.
What is the strangest place you've ever heard a baby being born in?
Image via Micheal Melchiorre/Flickr
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Comments 38
glad baby is ok
My thought upon seeing the pics of the "pit" were "How did the baby fit down the hole?" It doesn't look so big that a newborn could fit all the way through it and be laying in the cavity underneath.
I am kinda glad I read this. I am about to have a VBAC so it'll be my first time going through labor and no one ever told me that it felt like having to poop. A woman I used to babysit for DID tell me that her first labor took forever because she was pushing wrong. They talked up doing kegels her whole pregnancy so in the end she thought those were the muscles she was supposed to use, until the nurse told her to push like she had to poop. After that baby just popped out. I was nervous I wouldn't recognize the signs of labor when they started, but I feel a little more confident now, and I definitely know now to steer clear of bathrooms! lol
Ew! That poor baby!
I can relate to that. When I was in labor with my first, I kept telling the nurse "I have to poop." She said, "no that's the baby." I kept insisting, she finally said, "well, go ahead, we have plenty of sheets!" She wasn't about to let me go to the bathroom! Good thing, cuz it was the baby!