Trinity’s Story
By Mindy Judd, with Dustin
The Pregnancy
My pregnancy with Trinity was easy. I had the usual nausea early on, but everything else was normal, healthy, and hopeful. I ate well, walked, got adjusted, and never had a single warning sign.
We wanted a natural birth, so I interviewed several birthing centers and chose a well-respected birthing center just two minutes from a major hospital. Our home in Corsicana was an hour from any hospital we trusted, and I wanted to know that if anything went wrong, help was close.
The Birth
At 41 weeks, I was only dilated to a one, so I was sent for a sonogram. I asked the tech if everything looked okay. She said yes, we just need to get her out. Back at the birthing center, my midwife started a gentle, natural induction and sent us home to let labor begin.
That night felt normal. Dustin ordered barbecue and played his flight simulator while my contractions slowly built. After midnight, things picked up fast. I rode the hour back to the birthing center lying in the back seat of Dustin’s truck, in more pain than I’d ever felt.
We arrived around 5:30 that morning. What should have happened next didn’t: no one put a heart monitor on me. Trinity’s heartbeat went unchecked until they broke my water and found meconium. By the time the monitor went on, she was already in distress.
Her doctors later suspected she had suffered a stroke before she was born. If she had been monitored when we arrived, we believe there would have been time to get her out sooner. That is the hardest part of her story to carry.
At the hospital, I could hear her heartbeat slowing almost to nothing. There was no time. They strapped me down, put an oxygen mask over my face, and rushed me into an emergency C-section. It is still the most frightening moment of my life.
Eight Days
When I woke up, I asked where she was. I was sure she was fine. Then Dustin came to my bedside and cried. Trinity had been resuscitated twice, and she was barely hanging on.
That afternoon she was moved by ambulance to another hospital’s NICU. I couldn’t go because I had just had surgery. Dustin sent me a picture: her eyes were open, and she was more alert than I had ever seen her.
In the middle of the night, I convinced my doctors to let me leave so I could be with her. I walked in and said, “Hey, baby girl,” and her eyes turned toward me.
I wasn’t giving up on her.
For eight days, Trinity fought. She was heavily medicated, and we weren’t allowed to hold her. That is the part I would change if I could live it again. A baby needs her mother close.
On the eighth day, her doctors told us they didn’t believe she would recover. We made the hardest decision any parent can make, and we let her go.
Finding Our Why
Grief pulled me into a very dark place. I needed answers, and I needed her life to mean something.
That search led us to a pediatric chiropractic conference in San Diego. There, a doctor shared the story of his own son’s traumatic birth. It was so close to Trinity’s that Dustin and I sat in the audience and wept. I looked at him and said, “This is Trinity. This is where we’re supposed to go.”
We poured ourselves into pediatric training: neurology, the nervous system, and how the brain and body connect. That training changed how we see children’s health, and caring for children became the heart of everything we do.
To the Mom Reading This
Trinity is part of every family we care for. She is why YOGO exists.
If you’re looking for a place where you’ll be heard, we would love to meet you and your family.
— Mindy, with Dustin
