Sisterhood of Angel Mama’s Magazine | Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Edition October 2022
Jerome Michael Mays
Written & Photos by Laurynn Schnaitman
I first found out that I was pregnant in April 2016, don’t know the exact date. I had missed my “cycle” for awhile and figured just as much but still was unsure. I had went to an urgent care to get a test done and the test came out positive. Once I found out I was pregnant, I started calling around for doctors and such and making my appointments for the upcoming months. In May 2016, I had my ultrasound appointment to find out the gender and that’s when I find out it was a boy. Everything was going good with my pregnancy and such.
Around the week of July 4th, I had a crazy and scary week. I worked the fourth of July and all was good. I was off the next day, went out with my boyfriend (my son’s father) had some time outdoors and had a relaxing night that day. Then on July 6th, I woke up with an uncomfortable feeling and thought I had to use the restroom, so I had went and got back into bed. It was then that I realized that I had to go to the bathroom again, but I didn’t end up going, I had “blood” coming out of me and I knew it wasn’t good. I then told my boyfriend that I needed my phone to call my doctor and that’s when they told me to go to the ER due to the symptoms of what I told them.
I got to the hospital around 8:30am that day. The hospital staff checked me in, took me to the floor where I was going to be at and then I got to the Labor and Delivery floor, they instructed me to get into the hospital gown and lay on the bed. They put the fetal monitor on my stomach and that’s when they told me they couldn’t find my son’s heartbeat. I was devastated. Later on in the morning, my boyfriend had called my job to let them know I wasn’t coming in and told them what happened. Fast forward to the next day on July 7, 2016, at 8:20am, weighing in at 5lbs, 1oz: 18inches long; I gave birth to my precious son whom we named after his dad.