A video on TikTok went viral of a mom playing the “put a finger down” game while sharing her story about her traumatizing labor experience.
By Sunday, the user (@oursnotthetime) has reached over 6.9 million views on her TikTok. The video is spoken in the third person as she tells the audience to put their finger down if they have experienced her story.
The user explains that she was 36-weeks pregnant with identical twins. She decided to go to the emergency room because she had been feeling like she was having contractions. Once she arrives she says the nurse told her she was only 1 centimeter dilated and would “see her in two weeks.”
@oursnotthetime Put a finger down Identical twin labor story #fyp #twin #birth #labor ♬ original sound – Ours
She then says the nurse sent her home without a wheelchair, and she had to walk down three flights of stairs. She says for the 15-minute ride home she is in “excruciating pain” and continues to feel terrible. After a shower, she lays down on her bed and yells for her family. Her own twin sister tells her husband they need to call 911 because “even if she’s not having her babies this isn’t normal and something could be wrong.”
As her husband calls 911, they are told to prepare to have the baby at home. She says the officers told her husband, “He needs to get a clean towel, new shoelaces, and a clothespin.”
“At this point it’s been about maybe 20 minutes since you got back from the hospital,” she says. To make matters worse, the EMTs come into her home and she says the first one she sees is a man she went to high school with. He says, “Just pretend you don’t know it’s me.”
“Great,” she says.
She says the EMTs carry her out of her apartment as everyone in the complex is staring at her outside. The men in the ambulance told her that she was about to have her babies soon because her contractions were very close together.
Once she arrives at the hospital, she says the nurse that sent her home had an attitude while saying, “Why are you here?” The EMTs start to lift her into the bed and the nurse says, “Oh, she can get into bed on her own.” The EMTs still lifted her into bed.
She tells the viewers, “It’s been 30 minutes since I was 1 centimeter… Then they check me and they’re like ‘Oh, she’s 4 centimeters, she’s in active labor.’” She tells her mom that she can feel the baby coming and she needs to get the doctors, adding: “I’m literally holding my legs closed because I feel like my baby is coming out of me.”
When the doctors come back in, she is at 10 centimeters. “They all start freaking out,” she says. Her main doctor was frustrated with the staff because she was supposed to deliver in an emergency room. “You can’t do that because your baby’s head is crowning,” she says.
Her first daughter was born right away without having to push. She says for both of them it was less than 2 minutes and the whole time she felt “blacked out.”
She posted a second video showing the photos of her and her babies right after birth. “It makes me sad to look back on these photos,” she says, “but it also validates what I was feeling at that moment.”
Viewers flooded the comment section, validating her feelings. “I would have screamed to get that nurse away from me. I am disgusted for you, I hope you’re doing better now,” one says.
Another says, “From a labor and delivery nurse, SUE. I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Multiple other comments suggest that she should take legal action with the hospital.
Others comment, “I did not put my finger down.” One says, “Only reason I can’t put a finger down is because I didn’t have twins, but yeah, same!”
“I’m so sad that there’s so many stories of women not being taken seriously,” a viewer responded.
The Daily Dot reached out to @oursnotthetime via TikTok direct message.
