Going into labor for the first time can be stressful and chaotic and exciting and emotional. And as much as you try to prepare, the truth is, not everything will go according to plan. That said, most people hope that at the very least, the people you allow in the room on the big day will be helpful and reassuring. For one woman on Reddit, however, her delivery "support" team was anything but supportive. In fact, her mother-in-law decided to play videographer during her delivery and film her giving birth — without permission.
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It all went down when the mom went into labor on Halloween one year.
In her anonymous Reddit post, the woman shared that her labor lasted so long, she ended up giving birth on November 4.
"Holy d— those days of labor were h—!" she admitted. "I honestly didn't think it could get any worse. I. Was. Wrong."
Things took a real turn when it was finally time for the baby to arrive — and her mother-in-law made her own grand entrance.
"Everything seemed fine and calm until MIL wanted a cigarette and started to demand I start to push, then she tried to threaten that if I didn't start pushing, she will have to push down on my stomach to force my daughter out," the mom continued. "Nurses heard this and made her take a walk and she left for a good 40 minutes."
Things then got even worse for the tired mama when her MIL pulled out her cellphone and hit record.
The mom explained that she was already drained from "being in labor for so long with no pain meds or rest or food/water."
"Pushing was hard as h—," she continued, "and I just wanted to sleep!"
But that's when she noticed her MIL sneaking some ahem intimate shots.
"The moment my daughter was born was the moment I noticed that the entire labor MIL had her cell phone out and was recording my ENTIRE birth!" she recalled. "From my pushing [to] the stitching process (I tore 100 percent)."
Oof.
The mom later asked her MIL to delete the video and says she 'promised' that she would.
But apparently, that agreement wasn't seen as binding.
"It wasn't until a week later when we went to visit her (she had an 'emergency') that I found she was showing random strangers this video and many of these strangers were men that she [barely] knew," the mom shared.
Things eventually got so bad that the poster needed to take her MIL to court just to get the footage deleted.
"And after that, she wasn't allowed near me nor my daughter," she added.
(Yikes. That escalated rather quickly.)
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On Reddit, people were straight-up SHOOK at the MIL's actions.
"OMG!!!!" one woman wrote in the comments. "Is she just that clueless??? I am so glad you are keeping her away from you and the kids. … I would be livid especially when I found out she was showing that to strangers."
Someone else thought the mom needed to cut off contact completely.
"Do you still have contact with this woman? I wouldn't," the person commented. "And I would be sure my kids never, ever knew her."
"I'm a nurse so not much shocks me, but I read the second half of your post with my mouth agape in horror," someone else wrote. "I am so incredibly sorry. I cannot believe none of the RNs noticed!!! I'm so upset for you."
In the end, the poster shared that she and her husband did decide to cut off his mother after the birth of their second child.
"We cut her out almost two years ago now, after my son was born," she explained.
And that, it seems, was that.
Sound harsh? Maybe so. But violating your daughter-in-law's privacy and refusing to rectify the situation until you're taken to court? Sounds like that MIL sure had it coming …
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
