Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin. Chapter Thirteen "Then was born unto them, a son."

As she approached the last month of her pregnancy, Sarah planned one last trip: attending the Republican Governor's Association meeting in Texas. It was going to be her last flight before Trig's arrival. Sarah was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, and she felt it was something she couldn't pass up. On the morning of April 17, the day she was to address the governors, the Braxton-Hicks contractions that had been plaguing Sarah in recent weeks started picking up their pace. Wait! Let me get this straight. This book is suggesting that Governor Palin, was already having contractions BEFORE she left for Texas? And that she still flew for 10 or 12 hours to give a speech? She awoke in her hotel room at 4 a.m., noticed amniotic fluid was leaking, and called her doctor in Wasilla. Todd got on his phone and arranged another return flight right after the keynote address. If she could, she was going to give that speech, and she did. Then they left the hotel immediately and flew back to Alaska, with a stopover in Seattle. ( pg. 186) I cannot yet locate any travel information concerning Sarah Palin and this trip to and from Texas, but this is definitely something we need to get our hands on.

Sarah was in touch with her doctor throughout. Her contractions steadied at one to two an hour, which her doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, who was not an obstetrician but has delivered many children, including Piper, determined was "not active labor", she told the reporter. "I don't think it was unreasonable for her to continue to travel back," she said. (ADN source for this quote can be found here.) Of course this is absolutely the very definition of malpractice on Cathy Baldwin-Johnsons part. NO doctor would allow their patient to get on a plane with both contractions and leaking amniotic fluid. It simply could not happen. There are few parts of the "Sarah Palin gives birth to Trig" story as hard to swallow as this one. I have tried to contact Dr. Baldwin-Johnson a few times and have been rebuffed, but I would love to hear how she can justify this decision, and then allow herself to be quoted by a reporter. ...Sarah showed no signs of distress on the Alaska Airlines flight, an Airline spokesman said. This of course is only a portion of the quote from the Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren who said: "The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation. She did not show any signs of distress." This is all we have ever heard from Alaska Airlines on the subject, and nobody has ever followed up to see if Palin even looked pregnant or not. Sarah said she wouldn't have risked the baby's health to have him in Alaska. But of course this statement is nonsensical because if this event actually occurred then Sarah Palin did that very thing. She placed Trig Palin, and herself, in extreme danger. Todd joked, "You can't have a fish picker from Texas." And if we are to believe that this was the motivation for such a careless decision then are we to believe that Todd Palin would rather have a dead baby, and a hemorrhaging wife, then to allow his child to be born in Texas? The loving family myth does not hold up under much scrutiny now does it?

After her commercial flight touched down in Anchorage, Todd DROVE her to regional hospital in Mat-Su Valley, where her family was waiting. That is a drive of between 45 minutes to an hour, and this was after they supposedly retrieved their bags from the airport. How many hours of labor is that? Twenty hours? Twenty five? On Friday morning--eight hours after touchdown--Sarah gave birth to a 6-pound, 2-ounce baby boy. The book leaves out this part: Baldwin-Johnson said she had to induce labor.

"Induce labor" supposedly this is Sarah Palin's fifth child! Just how long can labor last when you are having your FIFTH child?

So let's sum this whole section up, shall we?

Sarah Palin flies to Texas to give a speech while experiencing occasional contractions.

She is awakened at 4:00 in the morning with more severe contractions and leaking amniotic fluid.

She calls her doctor, who says "no worries, you should be fine", and she gives the speech. (By the way NOBODY at the Conference noticed she was having any difficulty at all, “Nobody knew a thing,” said Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii. “I only found out from my security detail on the way home that she had gone into labor and that she had gone home to Alaska.”)

Then she climbs onto ANOTHER Alaska Airlines flight back to Alaska, has a stopover in Seattle, and arrives in Alaska at 10:30 p.m. our time. By now she has been leaking amniotic fluid and having contractions for twenty two and half hours!

She then passes both Providence and Regional Hospitals in Anchorage and drives in a car for another hour to Wasilla to give birth to a baby with special needs that is arriving one month premature.

And when she arrives it is still another eight hours before Cathy Baldwin-Johnson INDUCES labor and Sarah pops out little Trig Paxson Van Palin.

By the way THIS is how Sarah Palin herself described giving birth to Trig: "It was smooth. It was relatively easy," Palin said. "In fact it was the easiest of all."

Now do me a favor. Just read over this post a few times, and ask yourself, "Does ANY of this seem reasonable? Is it even possible that it is true?"

Even if you have not been somebody who embraced the conspiracy theories about this birth, surely seeing the whole thing laid out like this must make you rethink that position. Doesn't it?

Next up: Willow notices something odd.