A GoFundMe to help the family during this difficult time has raised more than $9,000 so far.
SAN ANTONIO — A community is rallying behind grieving parents who lost their newborn baby just hours after birth.
The San Antonio couple is opening up about infant loss in hopes of bringing awareness while honoring their baby boy.
Michael Villa and Jasmine Martinez are high school sweethearts who have been together for about seven years. The engaged couple was ready to start a family. Sadly, they had suffered a miscarriage with their baby girl. But, they say they found hope when they became pregnant with Noah Michael Villa.
“We saw it as almost like a promise that this baby was like a rainbow baby,” Martinez said.
Martinez said she was having a healthy pregnancy. But at 22 weeks and two days pregnant with Noah, she noticed she had a lot of fluid coming out of her body. So she went to the doctor, worried it may be amniotic fluid. Doctors said that was not the issue. Turns out, she was three centimeters dilated.
“He basically said I can go into labor at any moment, even though I’m not having any signs of labor,” Martinez said.
Doctors ended up sewing Martinez’s cervix back together, in hopes of keeping the baby inside until at least 24 weeks.
However, shortly after the procedure, Martinez started to feel really sick.
“It became this game of my heartrate would go down, blood pressure would drop, blood pressure would drop heart rate would go up,” she said.
Martinez was diagnosed with sepsis. She was told if she did not deliver Noah, both she and her baby would die. But Martinez admits, at first, she refused to let them induce her, knowing his chances of surviving were low.
It was not until a woman came in to pray over the couple, they both felt it was a sign.
“I felt like God told me to prioritize and save my fiancée jasmine at all cost,” Villa said.
On Friday, September 13, Martinez gave birth.
“He was in breach, he flipped the last second and I can hear the nurse say, he’s breathing,” Martinez said.
Martinez called the labor a beautiful experience. While she was not able to hold her baby in that moment, just seeing him alive was enough.
“Every time I close my eyes to go to sleep and sometimes, I blink, I see his face,” Villa said. “You know, the first time I laid eyes on him.”
Doctors told her Noah only had a 18% chance of survival. But Martinez and Villa remained hopeful. They visited their baby boy and captured photos and videos.
“I can see us in him,” Martinez said. “I have never seen a more beautiful face.”
But after about 10 hours, Noah stopped responding to treatments. They were told it was time to say goodbye. The couple was able to hold their baby for one last time.
“He didn’t want to die,” Martinez said. “I could tell he wanted to stay and I just could tell he didn’t want to go and then eventually he just stopped moving and then she called his time of death and that was it.”
They now call Noah a warrior, for fighting for so long to stay with them.
“I was able to capture a very good moment of to where he’s holding the cross, just moments before he’s about to pass,” Villa said. “He was begging Jesus for him to stay.”
The grieving couple said they wanted to share their heartbreak because they know they are not alone.
“I’ve come to the point where if anyone has ever gone through this or will go through this, I need them to know to not feel guilty,” Martinez said.
A community rallying to support them
Since losing Noah, Villa felt he needed to step up for his family. He admitted he never liked asking for help but knew because of the medical costs and funeral costs, he set his pride aside.
Villa started this GoFundMe and shared their heartbreaking story. As of Sunday night, more than $9,000 has been raised.
But aside from the money, Villa said he has been met with random acts of kindness, including at the gym he plays basketball at. Where a man randomly gave him a new pair of Kobe sneakers without knowing what he had just gone through.
He shares that moment that happened just days after his son’s loss:
