In college, I worked at a large chain store that happened to be going out of business, so there were massive closing sales. During the evening, while I was sorting some clothes in the women’s department, a very pregnant woman and her mother walked past me.
All I heard was, “Oh, my gosh, I think my water just broke!”
Naturally, I whipped my head around to face the women, since that’s not a line you hear every day and, sure enough, the woman’s pants were wet and a pool of clear, yellowish liquid had formed at her feet.
My first response was, “Oh, wow,” because my mouth reacted before my brain with amazement at the whole situation.
Me: “Do you need an ambulance to the hospital, or do you want to take your own vehicle? Or would you like to call someone?”
And to my shock, the pregnant woman’s mother said:
Mother: “We’re going to shop around for a bit longer. These sales are too good to pass up!”
The daughter whose water had just broken and was leaking onto the floor… agreed!
So, they kept shopping and looking around, tracking amniotic fluid everywhere they went, and finally made their way to the cash to check out.
Meanwhile, my coworkers and I were scrambling to find the Wet Floor sign, but it was MIA, so I had to stand near the area where the woman’s water initially broke and direct customers to walk around the fluid.
They checked out and left to go to the hospital. At that point, the woman was definitely going into labour and was waddling (more than a pregnant woman usually would) to get out of the store.
As soon as they left, we broke out the cleaning supplies and started sanitizing.
I’d like to point out that when my coworker checked them out, she said that they weren’t even buying anything baby-related — all women’s clothing. I’m not judging because she could very well have had all her clothes and everything ready for her baby.
But is a store closing sale really so important that you’ll keep shopping even after your water has broken?
