A woman about to give birth in hospital found her preparations disrupted by a series of blood-curdling screams coming from the bed next to her.
Kearabetswe Sally Mojela from Pretoria, South Africa, was filming a video for friends and family just before she went into labor when she started to hear the sounds of another pregnant woman in the labor ward screaming in pain.
“I was definitely very nervous as it was my first experience with giving birth,” Mojela told Newsweek. “The screams made me realize how intense it was about to get for me as well and I just kept thinking if I’d actually be able to get through this because it definitely sounded like she was in excruciating pain.”
The sound of a person screaming has a unique effect on the human brain.
A study published in the journal Current Biology found that human screams possess a unique acoustic property that triggers the fear center of the brain more effectively than any other sound. Researchers reached that conclusion after testing the impact of a variety of sounds on the human brain.
While all of the sounds tested activated the auditory cortex of the brain, screams also triggered the amygdala, which is the emotional center responsible for fear processing. Only car alarms and police sirens came close to replicating the response.
Though it might not be uncommon to hear screams in a labor ward, the horrifying nature of these particular utterances had Mojela understandably anxious.
“It’s like hearing someone who’s telling you ‘they are about to die’ and you still have to also go through the same thing,” she said. “It’s traumatic honestly.”
TikTok/@kearaxsally
Mojela later shared the clip to her TikTok @kearaxsally, where it drew similar responses from viewers.
“I’d stand up and go home,” one user wrote. “No one can convince me to get pregnant again,” a second commented, with a third adding: “you really traumatizing me with this sound…I’m due in 12 days yooo I’m scared.”
A fourth said: “I was telling my man this in the morning saying I’m scared to give birth and December is just here,” while a fifth wrote: “I’m glad none of my neighbors did this to me because I would have trended 2 million times.”
Mojela doesn’t mince her words when it comes to her own child birth experience. She said those screams proved to be an accurate “indication of what to expect.”
“My experience was not fun at all. It was very painful and I literally would have to be convinced to go back there,” she said.
“Everything is okay now, still healing though. Motherhood is beautiful, I’m just happy that my blessing is finally here really.”
Mojela can even raise a smile watching the video back. “It’s a great memory for me to have regarding my birth experience,” she said. “Her screams were so valid.”
