‘My daughter wasn’t going to come home’
Crystal Ortiz’s stillborn daughter’s name was Madelyn Rose.
“I had my son when I was 20. I was a single mom trying to make it, working two jobs and going to school. Then I met my fiancé, and we got pregnant in 2013.
“Everything was fine with the pregnancy. Everything was normal. And then about two days before I was due, on a Saturday, I kept telling him that I didn’t feel her moving. He thought that was odd, but said maybe I had just eaten a lot or maybe she was running out of room.
“The next day I called my mom and told her something’s weird. She’s not moving. I poke her. I eat ice, because they say eating something cold might get a reaction. But still, she’s not moving at all. My mom told me to go to the hospital, and they’ll probably just check me out, see that everything’s OK and send me back home.
“So we went up there on Sunday, around 4 o’clock. They tried to find the heartbeat, but they couldn’t. The whole time I was in denial. I was thinking, everything’s going to be fine. They just can’t find it right now, but it will be OK.
“After that, it was all a blur. My fiancé called my mom and his mom, and they came up there. That’s when the doctor let the family know there was no heartbeat. I was going to be induced. I was going to deliver, and my daughter wasn’t going to come home.
“The only thing I remember clearly is after they put her on my chest, there was just this silence. It was the worst feeling ever. Before then, I hadn’t cried. But that’s when I lost it.”
— Crystal Ortiz
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