The miracle of life is always pretty phenomenal, but every once in a while, something more … miraculous than usual really captures our attention. Or rather, it’s shared via social media and goes viral. Such is the case with new parents Marco Rogers and Aniyia Williams, who welcomed a baby girl under some pretty surprising circumstances. Although a hospital birth had been planned, baby Noemi was born in the couple’s San Francisco home — delivered without medical personnel, without a hospital bed, nothing — just two loving parents, a father-in-law, a 911 operator, and later on, some serious Twitter action.
Welcome Noemi Rose Rogers. Born Jan 2nd, 8lbs 6oz. She's doing well and so is @operaqueenie. Also she says hi. pic.twitter.com/Y3hQYYzhpe
— Marco Rogers (@polotek) January 6, 2016
Noemi entered the world on January 2, 2016, and five days later, her father Marco, an engineering manager at Clover Health, decided to share the family’s amazing story with the world (or at least, the Twitterverse). “I’ve got about 10-15 minutes before she wakes up. So it’s time to tell the story of how I delivered my own baby girl,” reads the first of many tweets. And don’t worry, they just get better from here:
We asked her OB and she was on board. "Giving birth is the only thing you don't have to learn how to do. Your body already knows."
— Marco Rogers (@polotek) January 8, 2016
As Marco tells it, his wife Aniyia, who is the founder and CEO of a startup called Tinsel, started experiencing contractions on the morning of January 2, five days before her due date. A true couple of the new millennium, the two of them were closely monitoring Aniyia’s progress with an app called Full Term, which as Marco tweets, “lets you time your contractions and keeps track of their intensity and the time in between.” And while things seemed to be progressing at a steady rate for awhile, suddenly, the contractions were very strong and very close together — five to six minutes apart, to be exact.
This is the point where I started thinking I should go to the hospital because the contractions were intense. But… https://t.co/NUVludXAJ1
— Aniyia ❤️ (@operaqueenie) January 8, 2016
When the couple called Kaiser Permanente hospital, however, they were told to wait (for the second time, actually — the first time they called, things had not escalated quite so much). This turned out to be not so great advice — shortly thereafter, Aniyia’s water broke, and so did all hell, the couple says.
Aniyia took over the story-tweeting, writing, “All of a sudden I felt the craziest pain I have ever experienced and the sound I made … It felt like someone else was making it.” And from there, things really got crazy.
I'm screaming "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT I CAN FEEL THE HEAD CALL 911". OMG I'm gonna have the baby right now.
— Aniyia ❤️ (@operaqueenie) January 8, 2016
Realizing that they didn’t have the time to make the 20-minute trip to the hospital, Marco went on a frantic search for the What to Expect birthing book, only to realize: “I walk into our bedroom. My wife is on all fours. I can see the top of my baby’s head. I don’t have time to read shit.”
Then it became a moot point. A fresh contraction starts. Wailing. Pushing. And Noemi Rose Rogers pops right out into my hands.
— Marco Rogers (@polotek) January 8, 2016
Adopting what he calls “tunnel vision,” Marco manages to deliver his baby with the help of an emergency operator (who his father-in-law wisely called to walk the frightened trio through things). And happily, all’s well that ends well — baby, mother, father, and grandfather all seem fine.
She spits out some fluid.
She wriggles just a little.
And then she lets out one sharp, clear yelp.
And breathes.
— Marco Rogers (@polotek) January 8, 2016
Your heart, however, won’t be after reading the full series of tweets from Marco and Aniyia. So if you’re ever planning on delivering your own child, be sure to read up on everything from this super couple who can tell you all about slippery blue newborns and what to really expect when you’re expecting.
