AITAH for “running away” to give birth ?
I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/ruinedbirth_trowaway posting in r/AITAH
Ongoing as per OOP
1 update - Medium
Original - 10th May 2026
Update - 13th May 2026
AITAH for “running away” to give birth ?
I 23F and my husband 25M have been together for 4 years , married for 2 , and we were expecting our first child.
My relationship with my MIL was never amazing , but before this she always kept to herself , and so did I , and for the record , my relationship with my husbands father and brother was always really good.
When i got pregnant , i told my husband that i wanted to keep it a secret for at least the 3 month mark , because my own mother miscarried 5 times in between my and my younger siblings , so i thought that this fact could affect my and my pregnancy , and because i remember the heartbreak of my mom loosing all those babies , i didn’t want our families to feel it . He totally agreed and even said it would be our cool little secret.
2 DAYS after i told him , i got a text from my MIL saying that she knew it was a girl and that it was selfish of me to keep the news of her baby girl away from her and her family .( just for the record , i was around 4 weeks pregnant at that point , so i had no idea about the sex myself so idk where that came from )
I confronted my husband , to what he replied “u were not expecting me to hide this from my mom right ? she deserves to know , it’s my child too “ I was furious and didn’t talked with him for around a week after this .
Needless to say that in the week after this incident EVERYONE already knew i was pregnant , and people were even mad at me for wanting privacy on this .
Then , the harassment from my MIL started , at around 4 months my and my husband went to visit my family and left my MIL responsible for watering the plants , when we came back , a whole nursery was made , all pink with the name Olga Bertha , painted on the wall . keep in mind that i had no idea about the gender still , and ofc this was an EXTREME privacy violation , i had a harsh conversation with her , she cried and my husband then has mad because i was mean to his mom
But this was just the beginning of the harassment , she was sending me articles everyday about the bad effects of working out during pregnancy , criticizing what i had for each meal , started crying because i want to exclusively breastfeed , she literally said “ feeding MY baby is a critical bonding moment ur steeling that from me “ , for not wanting visitors for one month , and then , the delivery room .
To sum it up , she wanted to be there , i said no , i only wanted my husband there , she seemed a little hurt but never talked about that again . Until my husband was showering and a message from her popped up , we had a lunch date on that day so i assumed it was the location and opened it , just to find HUNDREDS of messages of their plan on how she would get in the delivery room when i was too tired to argue to see her baby being born .
I cried a lot when i was alone not going to lie to you guys , but then i made peace with it , on that Monday i told him i was going to spend some days with my parents and if something happened i would tell him , i drove from north carolina to florida , where my family is , got into labour , gave birth with my mom and my two sisters in the room to a healthy baby boy , without my husbands knowledge,
Now to the present , my son is now 2 weeks old and i finally told my husband what i did , he is driving down here and yelled at me for giving birth without telling him , and for not including him on the birth certificate or name choice , and keeps saying that he and his mom will sue me
AITAH for “running away” to give birth ?
EDIT :
it seems to be a lot of comments abt the name in the nursery , olga bertha was no was was written, but close enough “olga” is the fake version of my MIL name , and “bertha” of my MIL mother
abt the two weeks of not telling him , we were not on good terms , just texting , so it was not hard to hide honestly
EDIT 2 :
for the ones criticizing my spelling and punctuation, i’m sorry if it’s not up to your expectations , but it’s the best i can do as a first time mom that is sleep deprived and gave birth 2 weeks ago , thank you for your understanding
Comments
daysailor70
Sounds like you should just stay with your parents, this marriage is over. He's putting his mother over your feelings and is completely unsupportive. And, what are they going to sue you for? I hope you took screenshots of the texts and planning with his mother, they will come in handy.
Substantial_Shoe_360
Screenshots of everything because entire chats can be erased from all recipients. Also make a journal of the everything that has happened and said. Best of luck and congrats on your son.
IllustratorSlow1614
NTA You cannot be sued for not letting your MIL or your husband in your delivery room. Do not believe them. Nobody has a right to be in there besides you, you are the only essential part of the process - even your doctor and midwife need your permission to treat you. Your baby is a resident of Florida by being born there. Take advantage of this. Get legal advice before your husband arrives. You do not have to go back home with him and you do not have to let him take your baby away from you. Assume your marriage is over - this is a good thing, because you husband is not on your side and only had a baby with you because he couldn’t have one with his mother. The emotional incest is deep between them and he has no interest in stopping it. Your best bet is staying with your family in Florida. Get a lawyer ASAP.
FeistyIrishWench
Yes, especially since NC has some obnoxious laws about divorce like you have to live apart for a year before you can file. Do not take the baby back to NC at all. File everything from Florida. Florida is its own level of asshattery related to divorce, but at least in Florida, you have your family there to assist you.
**Judgement - NTA**
Update - 3 days later
Hey guys , first of all thank you all so much for the messages
some people asked for an update , and i’m here for it , the last 48h were the most insane i’ve ever had honestly ,
so to go back where we left off , my husband arrived yesterday afternoon ,can u guess who also came ???? yeahhhh his mom ! nothing i was already expecting , but it’s always surprising ig
when he car pulled up , my MIL was the first to come out , they both got in , my child was in my old bedroom (in my parents house ) with my sister and mother , and in the living room my brothers, dad , me and them
the first thing that came out of her mouth was “quit the bullshit , my baby is a girl right ?” i said that my baby is a male , my family confirmed , my MILs face completely changed , she started crying saying that this one was meant to be a girl , and if she knew i would give her another boy she wouldn’t have been so nice to me
(for context , my husband has 1 brother only , and he is already done having kids , he has 3 boys )
i told her to go fuck herself , this child is MINE not hers , and i surely didn’t had a baby so she could fulfill her wired desires .
she was about to raise her voice , but my brother stopped her and told her that it wouldn’t be accepted in this house and asked her to leave and wait for my husband in the car .
(yes after she found out the gender , she didn’t even asked to see him )
she left , giving my dirty looks , but left
my husband looked at me and asked me how could i rob this moment from him, as u can imagine i replied with the plan they had , he turned pale , and then i think it all clicked together in his little brain .
he started apologizing and saying that it was just to shush his mom and that he would never actually do it , but after being pressured, his speech changed to :”but im also going trough a lot in the delivery room , i need support “
my whole family started laughing in his face , he got angry , and demanded to know my sons name and see him , i told him the name , and allowed him to see im from a far , he asked to hold him and i declined .
after this , i talked alone with him, and told him that i wanted a divorce , he cried , pleaded , and asked for another chance , i told him my decision was final , and that he didn’t had to financially support my child , but that our marriage was over , i asked him to come around the next day so we can discuss this better.
then he came , his eyes were puffy im guessing from crying , and he and his mom came here , looked at my husband and said OUT LOUD, that he should give me the divorce and forget about this kid since it was a boy , he should find a woman that would give him a girl . finally i saw that dude get a little of a backbone , and he told her to get out , that she already ruined this enough . she yelled as expected and left .
he cried and told me finally understood the kind of harm his mom was making to our family and told me that if i needed him to go NC with her to save our marriage he would .
i told him that i needed time to think , and told him to give me some days , he is returning to NC , and im abt a week he will come down again so we can talk
now i know what he did was horrible , but being a single mom at 23 is not ideal , and weather i like it or not , i still feel smt for this man….
any opinions and recommendations are welcome !
Comments
Maximus_Dick
Talk is cheap. Do one year of separation and if in this time he steps up massively and keeps his mum cut off, then you can review divorce then NTA
mocha_lattes_
With couples counseling and individual therapy
KatesDT
If you decide to give him another chance, please do not move back to where he lives. If you move back and establish residency there, he can keep you from going back to your parent’s house with the baby later on. Right now, since you gave birth in FL, that’s your baby’s home state. Stay there. You did a good job of protecting yourself and your baby. MIL is a horrible person. NTA. He gave you no choice. I’m sorry this is how your PP period has turned out to be. You and baby deserve better.
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