Viral TikTok shows events leading to Vacaville birth
VACAVILLE — It wasn't the way Shayanna Markham pictured the birth of her daughter.
Back in June, she began contractions and went to Kaiser in Vacaville, but she felt pressured to leave and come back.
"[The doctor] would recommend that either I go home to labor longer, and then when it got five minutes apart and when it got stronger, to come back or walk around the outlets to dilate more," she explained.
Markham said that her cervix was five centimeters dilated and her contractions were every seven to eight minutes, lasting roughly one minute. Doctors told her that being in labor could take anywhere between hours and days and Markham felt she was being shuffled out of the hospital. So she returned home.
While there, she felt the pain get worse. As her husband Anthony prepared to bring her back into the hospital, her child came into the world.
"I grabbed a towel and put it underneath me and Harper came out and I caught her," Markham said.
Anthony was on the phone with 911.
"I didn't know what to do," he said. "They walked me through what I needed to do until EMTs arrived."
The family was billed not only for the initial hospital visit for an ambulance trip back. Because their daughter had already been born, they were billed twice.
"I'm more frustrated because when I was there, I had to ask to be checked to see how dilated I was and I had to ask them if I would have enough time to get back and get an epidural and get some pain medication," she says. "Just to make sure she was born in a safe environment and born with people that knew what they were doing."
"I was mad at the nurse once I got there when I cleaned up the mess I shot to the hospital," Anthony recalls. "The nurse says 'oh I'm gonna put in your notes fast service to the hospital and I made some comments back. She just kind of laughs it off and I'm like 'I'm not laughing."
Frustrated with the handling of the process, Shayanna's sister went to TikTok to describe their experience.
"I didn't expect it to be this big of a thing," Markham said.
The story was viewed 14 million times. Medical professionals expressed outrage over the mishandling of the situation while other mothers chimed in with similar personal experiences of their own. With their baby happy and healthy at a month old, Shayanna hopes her experience becomes a positive one for others in the same situation.
"A lot of people [at Kaiser] are not being sent home and they're being more cautious, the lady that was the labor and delivery person [told me]," said Shayanna. "It didn't help me, but if it could help another woman, then I'm glad it happened."
Kaiser Permanente released a statement about the situation on Friday. The full statement is below:
"Our first priority is always the safety of our patients. While we can't speak to this specific event due to patient privacy, deliveries do happen unexpectedly on occasion. We recognize the families and thank the first responders who are able to manage these situations.
We take our patients' concerns seriously and when we learn of concerns, we follow up to apologize, listen and respond. Our physicians or certified midwives screen patients when they arrive based on multiple medical criteria and, on a case-by-case basis, determine if a laboring woman is ready to begin her stay with us. If a patient is reluctant to return home, we offer them to stay and be re-evaluated in a specific time frame. We do encourage laboring moms to walk as a standard practice to help labor along, unless prohibited by a medical condition.
We understand what a momentous experience this is for families and we are committed to providing expert, compassionate care for every patient. We're proud of our maternity care, which has been recognized for its quality by independent third parties."