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Two best friends, a.k.a. besties, in California are celebrating their babies’ arrivals, which happened to take place on the same day — and at the same hospital.
Kelcey Harris and De’Zhana Stallworth, both 27, welcomed their babies on Dec. 4 at West Los Angeles Medical Center.
Harris told “Good Morning America” that friends had told them they thought the two women would give birth on the same day, but she wasn’t convinced until the day it actually happened.
“Once we found out [we both were pregnant], everyone was already telling us like, ‘You guys are gonna have the babies on the same day.’ I had so many people saying that. I didn’t believe it though,” Harris recounted.
“I had [an] original due date of [Nov. 14], so I thought she was going to come earlier,” she added. “But then they pushed my due date back to [Nov. 29], so I was like maybe she’ll be a December baby, but I still didn’t figure that she would be the same exact day.”
Courtesy Kelcey Harris
ABC News reports Harris, a behavioral therapist, learned she and her boyfriend Jeremy Hunter would be expecting their first child earlier this year. She said she was surprised to learn just a few weeks later that Stallworth and her partner were expecting as well.
Harris and Stallworth, who’ve been friends since fifth grade, soon bonded even more over their shared experience.
“We’ve never really fallen out or not talked … We communicate and talk every single day,” Harris told “GMA” of her close relationship with Stallworth.
Harris said she even began seeing the same OB-GYN as Stallworth after hearing her friend talk about her doctor’s “sweet” demeanor.
Early last week, Harris said her water broke at 7:35 a.m. She quickly rang her best friend who had a cesarean section planned for that day.
“I called her immediately like, ‘My water broke. I’m about to head to the hospital,’ because we knew she was delivering there as well because we had the same doctor,” Harris said.
Harris and Hunter’s daughter Kaydence was born at 1:16 p.m. that day, according to her mother.
Besties defied the odds in more ways than one
A Biden official recently spoke about the difficulties of birthing for Black women specifically. The official who provided the information also shared some health research outcomes. “Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women, and Native American women are more than twice as likely to die,” said the official.
The Biden administration is initiating a new comprehensive maternal health care plan, according to officials familiar with the matter. The initiative will overhaul the current national maternal health care system.
Black Maternal Health Week is recognized each year from April 11-17 to bring attention and action in improving Black maternal health.