The Topeka Capital-Journal
TOPEKA, Kan. — When her pregnant daughter complained of pain Thursday morning, Dorothy Robinson admits she gave the matter little thought.
After all, her daughter, La’Trese Robinson, 19, was only 28 weeks along. It was much too soon for her to give birth.
“I told her she’d be uncomfortable and that she needed to take some Tylenol or call the doctor,” the elder Robinson said.
But the pain persisted. Still, with her daughter’s due date nearly three months away — on Sept. 21 — Robinson said she didn’t think La’Trese was going to be having her baby any time soon.
“That was the last thing on my mind, that she was in labor,” the 42-year-old Robinson said.
But things changed quickly, when around 6:30 a.m. Thursday her daughter’s water broke.
Soon, a hand was reaching out of La’Trese’s birth canal.
Ready or not, the baby was about to come.
“I got on the phone and called 911 and told them to send an ambulance,” Robinson said.
Then it became time to go into action.
A male 911 dispatcher walked Robinson through the delivery process.
Her daughter, who already had placed some towels on the bathroom floor, got in position to deliver the baby.
In seemingly no time at all, the baby was born.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, the baby’s here,’ ” Robinson said. “I was in shock. I just stood there and looked at the baby for a couple of seconds.”
At first, Robinson said she was concerned the baby may have stopped breathing. But in short order, the tiny child — who was only 14 inches long — began making some sounds.
The baby, who was named Angelina, and mother La’Trese were taken to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center by ambulance.
The baby is doing well in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and is expected to remain there for a couple of months. She weighs 2 pounds, 7 ounces.
La’Trese was released from the hospital on Saturday, and she said she was thrilled her baby is doing so well.
“She’s doing great,” La’Trese said. “She’s going to the bathroom on her own, which they said is very rare for a baby who’s so little.”
The baby’s father, Jahred Robinson-Hobbs, 20, said he was surprised when he received the news his daughter had been born.
He said he has been at Stormont-Vail nearly nonstop since the baby’s birth.
“She’s moving and kicking a lot,” Robinson-Hobbs said. “I am so happy right now.”
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