A Virginia couple had to give birth to their first child in the bathtub at home — because, they say, they were sent home after trying to get admitted to a hospital.
LeeAnn Bienaime, 27, went to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth because of “intense” contractions that perfectly matched the signs she’d been told to respond to during birthing classes.
“I was certain that we were just going to be admitted,” she told “Good Morning America,” revealing her shock when she was told to go home because she was 2 centimeters dilated rather than 5 centimeters.
“How do I know if it’s 5 centimeters?” she remembered thinking. “I’m a first-time mom.”
Just a few hours after they got home, baby Joachim made his entrance to the world — with dad Leo Bienaime, 29, having to help his wife give birth in the tub, as it happened too quickly for help to arrive.
“She said she felt the head and it’s like, ‘Oh wow. I’m not tired anymore,'” he told “GMA.”
“He slid out, I caught him and flipped. I wrapped him in a towel and handed him to her,” he told the ABC show.
The new mom admitted she was “angry.”
“Everyone I would talk to after I told them told me I shouldn’t have been told to go home,” she told “GMA.” “In hindsight, I would have stood my ground and not left.”
Her husband also said he would never have driven 25 minutes home had he known the drama he was about to go through.
“If I could do it again, I would’ve just sat in the waiting room and not left. We would’ve pitched a tent. We would’ve started a fire. We would’ve just straight-up camped,” he told WTKR.
He joked about the background it gave the first photos of his son. “Everyone that we showed the picture to was like, ‘Wait … why is there shampoo in the background?’” he said. “Don’t try this at home.”
The new mom says the hospital later apologized profusely for what happened.
A spokeswoman for Naval Medical Center Portsmouth told WTKR that it could not comment on the case because of patient confidentiality rules.
However, she stressed that the hospital “is committed to ensuring the safety of every patient and providing high-quality care.”