Teagan Swoboda, a mother from Wasilla, Alaska, shared her remarkable story of giving birth alone on her bathroom floor while her husband, Tony, was unaware of the dramatic event unfolding just upstairs.
On August 11, 2024, Teagan, 36, began experiencing contractions early in the morning at 5:45 am. Little did she know, her baby was about to make a swift entrance into the world. After timing her contractions for a brief 15 minutes, Teagan made the decision not to wake her husband right away. “I was thinking that if it was going to be a long day, I wanted him to be rested,” she explained. (SEE Video)
Tony, 41, assumed everything was progressing as planned and headed downstairs to set up the equipment for a water birth, which they had anticipated. At around 6:30 am, Teagan called to let him know things were moving much faster than expected. However, Tony was so busy setting up the pool that he didn’t hear her call. Just six minutes later, Teagan found herself delivering their baby daughter, Elliot, alone in the bathroom, told the Mirror.
“I couldn’t even get to the bathtub in front of me—I struggled walking,” Teagan recalled. “I gave birth to her on my own, which was terrifying. I was trying to catch her head and hold her arm. When she came out, I laid her down on the toilet to pick her up, then laid her on me. She cried, and I rubbed her back. It was like time stood still.”
Minutes later, Tony rushed upstairs to inform Teagan that the pool was ready—only to be met with a surprise. Entering the bathroom, he realized their daughter had already arrived. Teagan, a professional nurse, recalled, “I didn’t have time to process it. My husband came upstairs, saw my water had broken, and got a little lightheaded. He said everything was ready, and I said, ‘Yeah, great, but look what I have got.’ He was in absolute shock.”
Their daughter, Elliot, weighing 8 lbs 8 oz, had already made her grand entrance into the world. “I sat there with her, and Tony brought our boys to meet her. We waited until the midwife came, and we stayed home,” Teagan shared.
Teagan, who is also the mother of Alexander, 16, Brayden, 13, Colby, 10, and Delfin, two, discovered she was pregnant in December 2023, a surprise for her and Tony as they hadn’t planned for a fifth child. Teagan described this pregnancy as her most difficult, struggling with morning sickness and pain as her due date approached.
“I had very bad morning sickness, which I didn’t have with my boys,” she said. “We didn’t find out the gender until she was born, and I would joke that she had to be a girl because my boys would never treat me this way.”
Now that Elliot has joined the family, Teagan describes her as “perfect” and “so sweet.” Her four brothers have embraced her wholeheartedly. “It’s cute—they’re used to saying ‘he’ and ‘buddy,’ but they’re all such good brothers. They appreciate how little she is, and every noise she makes.” The Swoboda family is now adjusting to life as a family of seven, with baby Elliot already adored by her doting siblings.