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San Angelo mother shares painful 'stillbirth' experience after a 'Walk to Remember'

The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is significantly higher than in other developed countries with similar standards of living. In 2016, over 23,000 infant deaths were reported. This weekend Shannon Medical Center held a walk to support parents here locally who have experienced the loss of a child. Our Brenda Matute spoke to a mother who says support groups helped her family work through their loss.

SAN ANGELO, TX — "I actually work at Shannon as a respiratory therapist and so I’d always see the flyers for a ‘Walk To Remember,” said Monique Tapia. “And you never think it’s going to happen; that you’re ever going to need this Walk."

"When we got pregnant with Bekah we were not planning on having any more children, we were done so she was definitely a surprise."

"We were scared, we were really nervous and a few days later we told my parents, told my family and so they were oh they were so excited,” she said. “We have two boys so my parents always wanted a little girl and so I told them thanks a lot we're having a baby.”

"My coworkers would constantly check my blood pressure because my blood pressure is always good and they wanted to check my levels and know what my set was so we did that a lot, we were trying to do everything by the book."

"They checked it and my blood pressure was a little high and it was in the 140's, that’s high for me.”

"And so the nurse practitioner came out like what’s going on so she said come on, let’s check your blood pressure and so sure enough it got higher."

“She's like you need to call your doctor and tell him what's going on right now."

"My stomach got really hard, I felt her kind of shift, during the sonogram she really wasn’t moving her heart rate was great she just wasn’t and that wasn't anything out of the ordinary."

"I already had some signs, I already had protein in my urine which is signs of preeclampsia, my blood pressure was elevated, I was starting to have swelling in my hands and my legs."

"She kept hiding from them even before so we kind of knew that that’s how she acted so it took us a little while to find her heartbeat and we just couldn't find it."

"They grabbed the sonogram machine put it on me really quick, and instantaneously they said ‘her heart rate is in the 40's we're not going to get her out in time’. But I still had hope, you know as a respiratory therapist you’re trained to treat other babies and to save other people’s babies, so you think I know that team they’re great people I would trust them with my life. Once again, I thought it’s going to be ok."

"I just remember Dr. Hernandez telling me, you know we're going to take care of you, it’s going to be ok, and fell asleep."

"I delivered Bekah at 12:19 PM. Stillborn."

"You never think it’s going to happen to you, you never do."

"You try to fit a lifetime of love into a few hours cause you don’t know how long you have. So, I allowed people to hold her and even until this day I will still hear people tell me you blessed me so much by allowing me to hold your baby."

"For me and my husband allowing other people to hold her and share her with others was a great healing process for us."

"We don’t get to display her, carry her, walk with her, love on her like everybody else does with their kids that are living and so this was just a time for us to honor her and just honor all the other little babies that have passed."

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