GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN)—Michelle Serrano Gomez canceled her last client for the day at her hair salon, as she said she dealt with intense pain and bleeding.
“I was scared, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to die,” Serrano Gomez said. “I just prayed, ‘Oh Lord, help me.'”
Serrano Gomez, a working mom of six, was nearing the end of her pregnancy in late October. At age 42, she was set to have a C-Section. She said she’s never given birth any other way.
On the Monday before a traumatic life-changing event, Serrano Gomez said she went to her doctor, thinking her baby was coming. She said she was told she was having Braxton Hicks contractions, and she wasn’t really in labor.
Two days later, she would find herself alone in her car, delivering her baby herself.
“The 911 operator on the phone said just just go ahead and push, don’t keep her in, and I pushed,” Serrano Gomez said. “I could feel me tearing and I felt her head come out…I quickly just grabbed her. She was still in her sack. I could see her swimming around in the fluid and crying, and I quickly just yanked the sack off of her.”
EMT’s from Georgetown’s Fire Station 6 rushed into the Hill Country Salon Suites parking lot. A somewhat empty office, there weren’t many other people in the building who would have seen what was going on before Serrano Gomez called her doctor and then 911.
Security camera video outside the salon, caught the moments EMT’S arrived and helped her.
“The cord…I was still attached to her,” Serrano Gomez said.
EMT’s carried her and her baby on a stretcher to the hospital.
Baby Zayla is now healthy and happy, spending her days at home with her dad. However, there’s still a problem the family didn’t anticipate.
Because no one was there with Serrano Gomez, to witness her giving birth, she’s now having to jump through multiple hoops to get a birth certificate nearly a month after her daughter Zayla was born.
Serrano Gomez is sorting through this, as she works alongside other entrepreneurs in the salon, always working to keep business afloat.
“It makes me very upset,” Serrano Gomez said.
According to Serrano Gomez, she and her family have had to get a written witness statement from the EMT, a doctor’s note verifying her pregnancy, a notarized witness letter from a friend, hospital documents and more. She said they still no idea when they’ll be able to get baby Zayla’s birth certificate.
“It’s just one thing after another,” Serrano Gomez said.
Thanksgiving just days away, it’s not lost on Serrano Gomez and her family that they do have much to be thankful for.
“I am thankful that she’s here and she’s out,” she said.
However, she said next time, she’ll trust her instincts, and hopes sharing her story with other moms, will empower them to do the same.
Ascension Seton in Round Rock is where Serrano Gomez said she was taken and finished giving birth.
KXAN reached out to the hospital system to ask why it’s taking so long to get the birth certificate and has not heard back as of Monday evening.
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