Freeman was informed of her pregnancy six months into her term, but she chose to believe that she had food poisoning from a meal she had eaten on the plane. It wasn’t until she went through immigration at the airport that it dawned on her that she might just be going into labour after all.

Upon realising this, Tia, who works as a computer specialist in the US Air Force, decided to search through YouTube videos for instructions for delivering her baby. She made it to her hotel room determined not to give birth in an airport. When she got to her hotel room, she filled up a bath with warm water and grabbed two towels-one to bite into during contractions, and the other to function as a baby wrap.

As her contractions seemed to get much closer together, only spread apart by a minute, she pushed 5 to 6 times and the baby was out and floated onto the top of the water. She then followed the next step, as shown on YouTube, which was to cut the umbilical cord which she did right after checking the sex of her baby- it was a boy!

Without any tools for the cutting of the umbilical cord, she armed herself with a knife from the kitchen and decided to use her shoe lace as a make-shift clamp. She sterilised the shoe lace using boiling hot water and tied it to the cord before proceeding to cut it.

Her strength would still enable her to clean up the bathroom which she admitted looked ‘like a set of a horror movie’ before breast feeding her baby and going to sleep.

The next day, Freeman headed off to the airport to find out how she could leave the country with a newborn baby. After convincing local police and Turkish Airlines staff about her self-delivery story, local media organisations were tipped off and she became the subject of headline news in the country.

She was then taken to the US Consulate in Istanbul, where she applied for a birth certificate and passport for her son, whom she named Xavier Ata Freeman. After being taken to hospital – almost 24 hours since giving birth – she was given the all clear and spent another two weeks in Istanbul, fully paid for by Turkish Airlines.

There have been mixed reactions about Tia’s story of delivering her baby by her self. While many have applauded her for her bravery, others have criticized her actions, stating that she put the life of her baby at risk. 

However, as we close off another mother’s day celebration, Tia’s story is once again a reminder of the strength of a woman when faced with the welfare of her child. She’ll stop at nothing to ensure she takes care of her child. Very few kinds of love could still be deemed as unadulterated; the love of a mother has to top that list.

Tia is currently back in her hometown with her healthy baby boy surrounded by love from family and friends.

Read her entire twitter thread here