Talk about tough, new mother gives birth alone in Istanbul hotel using YouTube

Tia Freeman, a 22-year-old Air Force computer specialist, gives new meaning to the phrase warrior spirit.

Freeman was all booked and ready to embark on her trip to Germany to visit her friend.

Denying she was pregnant, she got on a plane for a 17-hour flight to Istanbul – her layover stop. It was there she began feeling intense abdomen pain.  She attributed it food poisoning. “I just knew I had food poisoning. Y’all I was HURT,” she posted on Twitter.

Managing to make it to her hotel room, Freeman realized her only option would be to give birth right then and there. With no knowledge of the emergency number in the country and not encountering anyone who spoke English, she quickly searched on YouTube for tutorials on having a baby.

“I decided to just have the baby at my hotel,” she explained.

Freeman began pushing once her contractions started arriving one minute apart. Her son, Xavier arrived. Then came time to cut the umbilical cord. She used sterilized shoestrings and a knife and cut. Xavier was in a warm bath and covered with a bath towel provided by the hotel – the only essentials Freeman could collect before his birth.

After breastfeeding Xavier, mom and son fell asleep.

As the mother and son tried to depart Istanbul, Freeman was told she would have to present documentation. ” the airport workers are freaking out bc you can tell this baby is fresh. I legit didn’t have any baby clothes & made him something out of my favorite blue oversized button down (RIP ). Anyway they thought I was a human trafficker trying to smuggle out a baby, she posted on Twitter.”

“So they called in customs, the police, a doctor & a nurse (to check the baby & me to see if I actually gave birth), and the airline higher ups. I was bombarded with questions (naturally) but finally I proved that I wasn’t a trafficker,” she explained further.

In the process of proving the aforementioned, Freeman contacted the United States Embassy.

Finally getting the opportunity to visit the doctor, Freeman and Xavier were deemed healthy.

Here is Freeman’s own account, documented on Twitter: