Mother gives birth to son in hotel bathroom while on business trip after thinking she had stomach bug

She says she is ‘listed as the doctor’ on newborn’s birth certificate

Chelsea Ritschel
New York
Thursday 07 April 2022 16:06 BST
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Woman gives birth in hotel bathroom while on a business trip
Woman gives birth in hotel bathroom while on a business trip (WXIA-TV)

A woman has shared how she gave birth to her son in a hotel toilet while on a business trip, after initially thinking that she had to use the bathroom.

Victoya Venise, a graphic designer and social media manager from Louisiana, was in Dunwoody, Georgia, for business when she assumed she had come down with a stomach bug, as she had recently taken her four-year-old daughter to urgent care for the illness, according to WXIA-TV.

However, according to Venise, who had been told by her doctors that her due date wasn’t until 15 May, she was actually in labour, and gave birth to her son Rocky Lee Andrew shortly after.

“So this happened last week y’all,” Venise wrote on Facebook, where she shared photos of the newborn. “I delivered my own baby [in] my hotel bathroom toilet. I thought I had to poo but it was the biggest blessing yet.”

While speaking to WXIA-TV about the birth, Venise said that by the time she realised “it was a baby and not poop, it was just too late”.

After giving birth to her son, who was born at 37 weeks, Venise told Fox5 that she called her mother and emergency services, and that she was taken to the hospital a few minutes from her hotel.

“I found a towel and I wrapped him up. I was sitting on the toilet and I called my mom. I was like mom, I just had the baby. I was like he fell in the toilet. She was like: ‘Call 911, call 911,’” she recalled.

According to Venise, the doctors were just as surprised as she was. “They actually thought my due date was 15 May because I was so small,” she told WXIA-TV. “So that was kind of the conflict with them. They thought I was not as far along.”

While the circumstances around her son’s birth were a surprise, Venise told People that she thinks the “crazy experience” was made even more special by the baby’s birth certificate, which listed her as the “doctor” and the newborn’s place of birth as “Extended Stay America,” the hotel where she was staying.

The mother-of-two also acknowledged that she had been considering putting her baby up for adoption prior to his birth, as she worried about raising two children as a single mother. However, she said she has since changed her mind after realising how strong she is.

“If I could literally bring you into the world by myself, I think I could take care of you,” she told WXIA-TV, adding that she feels “so connected to him even more”. According to the new mother, she will take some time off once she finishes the projects she has been working on, and plans to move to Atlanta, Georgia, to be closer to her own mother.

As for why she chose the name Rocky for the newborn, Venise told the outlet that the name was one given as a nickname to her grandfather. She also thought it was “befitting” considering the baby’s “rocky start,” but also because he is going to be “strong” and a “fighter”.

On Facebook, Venise noted that the birth of her son “is what a miracle looks like”.

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