HGTV's Jasmine Roth Details 'Terrifying' Birth Story as She Welcomes Baby No. 2: 'Grateful for the Experience' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

An anniversary I’ll never forget!

It was our 11-year wedding anniversary. We spent the day relaxing, building a stroller and floating in the pool. As we showered and got ready for dinner, we chatted about how fun our wedding had been and reminisced about all the little details that made it so special — we even took some cute anniversary photos before heading out the door. Our 4½-year-old daughter Hazel was all set up playing a game with grandma and we were looking forward to a proper date night.

As we put the route in the navigation, what should have been a 25-minute drive through the canyon from Park City to the University of Utah Hospital was showing 55 minutes and the map was solid red. I could barely believe it. There’s rarely traffic like this in the mountains and there isn’t another route to the hospital. What were the odds?!

Jasmine and Brett Roth with their newborn daughter.Matthew Sargent

Matthew Sargent

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I got up and was stomping around in the grass on the side of the highway (still yelping, hollering, screaming) trying to gather my composure. I was in so much pain, but also very scared. I was beyond frustrated. I knew I could physically handle an unmedicated birth, but I wasn’t in the right headspace. I was so caught off-guard that I was having a really hard time finding any peace or strength. I was terrified but didn’t want to admit it. It was very dark out and the traffic was completely stopped as far as we could see. As the 911 operator (she was so nice!) was instructing me to breathe (yeah, right!) and I was trying to come to terms with what was happening, I felt a bit of hope as I saw flashing lights coming our way.

The next fifteen days in the hospital were a blur. What I thought would be four hours of monitoring turned into an extended stay in the ICN (low-level NICU). Darla was a “preemie” and needed continued care including oxygen support, antibiotics (injected through an IV sticking straight out of her forehead for 5 days), light therapy, a feeding tube and constant monitoring. She had all the tests run, specialist visits and two concerned parents who only left her bedside to cuddle their other daughter. Luckily I had zero complications from giving birth and while it wasn’t a glamorous way to spend my recovery, we were grateful for the dorm-style “twilight room” that the hospital had for us to stay in while we waited for Darla to get released. It wasn’t at all how we had expected the birth of our second child to play out, but we tried hard to make the best of it. Our family rallied around us to support Hazel and everything we already had going on, and feeling their love was immensely powerful.

And looking on the bright side, we now have another really great story to reminisce about on our anniversary next year.

source: people.com