Did They Tell You About The Day You Were Born?
I had heard this story before. I knew I was this close to being born in a random public bus somewhere between Yemetu and Ojoo in Ibadan. But I really wanted to hear the story again, and the series of events that led up to that possibility, so I called my mom, and here’s what she told me.
On my birth day, my mom started having contractions around five in the morning, it was still so dark out so they decided to wait till there was some light outside before heading to the hospital. On getting there, she was checked in and she asked my dad to go back home to bring some beverages and other items. Then it all went downhill from there..
A nurse came in shortly after my dad left to conduct the routine fetal heart monitoring, and couldn’t hear my heartbeat. The doctor was alerted and my mom was advised to go to a diagnostic center about 10 kilometers away from the hospital to get a proper scan done. With a lot of fear and no dad or driver around, she got into a cab and went straight there.
Turns out the nurse was merely hard of hearing because I was perfectly fine by the time the scan was done. However, the contractions had gotten more intense and even worse, my dad had gotten back to the hospital only to be told that my mom had to go to the diagnostic center because they couldn’t hear my heartbeat. With my aunt and dad completely panicking, they rushed to meet my mom at the center..
At this time, my mom couldn’t get a cab back to the hospital, so she got into a public bus hoping the driver would be gracious enough to take her straight to the hospital at whatever cost. Well, he didn’t. He decided to stop at every bus stop because he didn’t want to lose customers. Lucky for mom, she realised she was just across from my dad’s office building so she got down and started trudging towards the building shouting for help. Staff recognised her and they immediately started to make arrangements to get her to the hospital. At the same time, a security guard stationed outside saw my dad’s car zooming past on the street and started screaming them down.
They were eventually able to get her to the hospital in time and she had a normal delivery with no complications.
And they named her; Abiola Mary Olubunmi Oluwamayokun Arike Biya.
“I chose you before I gave you life,
and before you were born I selected you.”
Jeremiah 1:5
Happy new year.
