I had my son, Jaxon, 4 weeks early on June 21, 2018. I started having what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions around midnight, and I also hadn’t used the bathroom in almost two weeks so I thought I was having bowel pains too. So, I went to the bathroom trying to relieve some of the pain and sat there for a while. However, the pain just got worse and worse. I did everything they tell you to do to get rid of Braxton Hicks. I went for a walk around my neighborhood, ate a little bit, and chugged a few bottles of water and nothing helped. The pain just kept getting worse and closer together. I wet back to the bathroom because it felt like I had to push and at that point the pain was so great that I screamed. My mom came running into the bathroom to ask what was wrong and I told her I thought I was in labor. She said it wasn’t possible, that the pain must be preterm labor pains and that I should just wait it out and try to get some sleep. I had a doctor appointment scheduled for later on that day so I tried to wait but I couldn’t. Around 4:30am, I screamed again because the pain was terrible and I felt like something started coming out of me. My mom came to check on me and looked and she said she saw something coming and we needed to go to the hospital. So we grabbed towels and got in the car and headed off to make the hour journey to my hospital of choice, GBMC. However, less than 5 minutes down the road I realized I forgot my insurance cards so we had to turn back. My mom ran in to get them and when she came back out, the contractions were less than three minutes apart and the pain was almost unbearable. I felt the urge to push and my mom called 911. We didn’t feel like we would be able to make it to GBMC so we started heading to the closest hospital to us, Upper Chesapeake. The 911 dispatcher heard my screams and told us to pull over and she was sending an ambulance. My water sack popped out of me but it never busted. We pulled over at the fire department and his head started coming out, which made my water slowly seep out of me but it still never broke. My mom caught his head for me and the ambulance pulled up right as his head came out. Thank god they got there when they did because the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. The EMT unwrapped it for me and at that point I felt like I was going to pass out and I told my mom that I didn’t think I could do anymore and I felt faint. She grabbed me by the face and told me to bear down, that I was strong and I could do this. So I pushed again and his shoulders came out. Another push and he was out completely. They laid him on my chest and cut the cord. The blood sprayed all over my moms car. And my body was in such shock I was shaking really badly. They had to take him from me because I couldn’t hold him steady with how badly I was shaking. As badly and I wanted to hold him I’m glad they grabbed him from me cuz I felt like I was either going to drop him or break his neck with how bad my body was uncontrollably shaking. At that point they stood me up and shuffled me over to the ambulance and rode us to the hospital which was just a few minutes down the street. When we arrived it was a nightmare. I wasn’t supposed to give birth at that hospital so they didn’t know anything about me. They took Jaxon away because he had breathed in some of his poop and amniotic fluid so he was having breathing issues and they had to ask all my information while stitching me up and trying to get my cervix and uterus back to normal. They put the name Amanda on both my bracelet and my child’s... despite the fact that I told them my name was Amber several times. They left me covered in blood and poop for 6 hours total before my mom had to BEG them to clean me up and give me a hospital gown to wear. And we had to ask several different people where my child was before I learned anything about his well being and it’s all because they put the wrong freaking name on or wristbands, which I didn’t notice right away because I was delirious from giving birth so traumatically. He had to stay in the special care nursery for two weeks. They don’t have a NICU there, or any NICU doctors or nurses. They don’t even have a pediatrician on call 24/7 either. I was also GBS positive at birth so he should’ve received antibiotics but he didn’t. So after I took him home 15 days after his birth, he was only home for one week before his doctor sent us to St. Agnes hospital for treatment because his breathing was way too fast. Turns out it was all because they didn’t give him antibiotics when they knew they were supposed to. So, my poor baby had to have x-rays, a catheter, a freaking SPINAL TAP, and several IV’s places throughout his three day stay. When we finally got home, he was covered in bruises and holes and his sleeping/feeding schedule was completely screwed up. He had massive diarrhea from the medication too, and then afterwards was constipated from the diarrhea stripping his gut of all his healthy enzymes. He is 9 weeks old today and other than his severe GERD issues, he is healthy and happy. NO thanks to Upper Chesapeake. So, my birth story was completely traumatic and I had nightmares about it for weeks. But, I’m so happy that I have him home with me and he is growing and is happy as can be. I wouldn’t trade him for anything. He is my whole world, even if the way he came into this world was very traumatic for me and the first two months of his life were riddled with hospital visits. I count my blessings every single day because he is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.