Tanika Cannon remembers the excruciating pain of labor when she was a teenager, pregnant with her first child. She remembers learning at the hospital that her baby was OK, but the hospital was full. Staff suggested she go to the hospital where her doctor practiced.
At the second hospital, pain drew Cannon in and out of consciousness. But now, decades later, she still vividly remembers these words: “We can’t find a heartbeat.”
“I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t know how to feel,” she said. “I was helpless. I was at their mercy of helping me — ‘Please, find my baby’s heartbeat. Tell me it isn’t so.’”…