Hi all. Long time lurker but I’ve never posted. This happened in the early 90’s. My older sisters and I have a large age gap as they were 17 and 16 when I was born. About a year after my birth my mom got pregnant with a girl. My mom and dad aren’t from the US and my mom use to be heavily Catholic back then. She didn’t know what a Quija board was and if she did she would’ve never let my sisters use it.
My sisters were about 18 and 17 at this time, more or less. I was about a year or two years old. This story has been told to be my my two older sisters, my mom, and my oldest sister’s best friend. They have no reason to tell me a creepy baseless story about a made up pregnancy.
My mother was about seven months along and my sisters were playing their Quija board with my oldest sister’s best friend. They asked the board when the baby would be born and they all corroborate that the board answered “now”. Only a moment later my mom was in their room handing me off to them because she was having contractions. This would’ve been my mother’s 7th child and 7th pregnancy (I had an older sister die before I was born when she was a toddler) so my mom knew exactly what it felt like when a baby was on their way. My sisters were shocked and looked at one another dumbstruck that the board had answered them correctly.
Keep in mind that this was thirty years ago and although 7 month old babies did “make it” here and there (my oldest sibling is a premie that got no ICU as she was born in a third world country) medicine was not as advanced as it is now and premies make it at higher rates than they did now. Speaking only from statistics black women and women of color suffer fetal death or death of the mother during delivery at higher rates than white women. I often wonder if my mom didn’t receive adequate medical care as a POC and someone that didn’t speak English. I wonder what it would be like to have a sister close in age to me often.
As you can probably tell my sister did not survive. As soon as my mom arrived at the hospital they told her the baby wouldn’t make it. I ask my mom if the baby was born alive or not and she said she did not know. She said she didn’t hear the baby cry when she was delivered. They were going to take her away right after the delivery but my mom asked to hold her. This would be the second deceased baby daughter my mom would hold in her arms in her lifetime. Only now as an adult I have asked her if she felt anything strange in the coming days, like, the fetus not moving or anything like that and she says no. That it was a regular pregnancy. I’ve asked her if the baby looked…decomposed or anything and she said no she looked like a normal formed baby, just small, and of course, not alive.
My sisters eventually fessed up to it and my mom made them get rid of the board. I don’t know if my sister was destined to die that day and the board just called it, or if there was anything more sinister at hand. I just can’t believe that it is a coincidence. My closest sibling in age to me is still more than a decade older. She would’ve been the one sibling I’d have that would have been around a “normal”’sibling age to me, and a sister nonetheless. I think about her and my older sister (passed as a baby but born 14 or so years before me) and I try to remind myself that they may not be alive but they are still my sisters and I should include them when talking about my family or how many siblings I have.
submitted by /u/acidic_milkmotel
[link] [comments]Hi all. Long time lurker but I’ve never posted. This happened in the early 90’s. My older sisters and I have a large age gap as they were 17 and 16 when I was born. About a year after my birth my mom got pregnant with a girl. My mom and dad aren’t from the US and my mom use to be heavily Catholic back then. She didn’t know what a Quija board was and if she did she would’ve never let my sisters use it. My sisters were about 18 and 17 at this time, more or less. I was about a year or two years old. This story has been told to be my my two older sisters, my mom, and my oldest sister’s best friend. They have no reason to tell me a creepy baseless story about a made up pregnancy. My mother was about seven months along and my sisters were playing their Quija board with my oldest sister’s best friend. They asked the board when the baby would be born and they all corroborate that the board answered “now”. Only a moment later my mom was in their room handing me off to them because she was having contractions. This would’ve been my mother’s 7th child and 7th pregnancy (I had an older sister die before I was born when she was a toddler) so my mom knew exactly what it felt like when a baby was on their way. My sisters were shocked and looked at one another dumbstruck that the board had answered them correctly. Keep in mind that this was thirty years ago and although 7 month old babies did “make it” here and there (my oldest sibling is a premie that got no ICU as she was born in a third world country) medicine was not as advanced as it is now and premies make it at higher rates than they did now. Speaking only from statistics black women and women of color suffer fetal death or death of the mother during delivery at higher rates than white women. I often wonder if my mom didn’t receive adequate medical care as a POC and someone that didn’t speak English. I wonder what it would be like to have a sister close in age to me often. As you can probably tell my sister did not survive. As soon as my mom arrived at the hospital they told her the baby wouldn’t make it. I ask my mom if the baby was born alive or not and she said she did not know. She said she didn’t hear the baby cry when she was delivered. They were going to take her away right after the delivery but my mom asked to hold her. This would be the second deceased baby daughter my mom would hold in her arms in her lifetime. Only now as an adult I have asked her if she felt anything strange in the coming days, like, the fetus not moving or anything like that and she says no. That it was a regular pregnancy. I’ve asked her if the baby looked…decomposed or anything and she said no she looked like a normal formed baby, just small, and of course, not alive. My sisters eventually fessed up to it and my mom made them get rid of the board. I don’t know if my sister was destined to die that day and the board just called it, or if there was anything more sinister at hand. I just can’t believe that it is a coincidence. My closest sibling in age to me is still more than a decade older. She would’ve been the one sibling I’d have that would have been around a “normal”’sibling age to me, and a sister nonetheless. I think about her and my older sister (passed as a baby but born 14 or so years before me) and I try to remind myself that they may not be alive but they are still my sisters and I should include them when talking about my family or how many siblings I have. submitted by /u/acidic_milkmotel [link] [comments]
