The next thing the 27-year-old remembers is going into cardiac arrest and fighting for her life.
Jennifer Choate's pregnancy was going as planned until February 18, 2025, roughly two weeks before her due date, when she was taken to the hospital with high blood pressure and headaches that had persisted for nearly three weeks.
Concerned about preeclampsia, doctors immediately admitted the expecting mother and got her started on magnesium infusions to protect her and the baby.
"Everything pretty much felt normal. I had a smooth pregnancy overall," Choate tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I would've never suspected something like this to happen."
The following day, labor was induced using Pitocin, and though she received an epidural, Choate says she could still feel each excruciating contraction.
It was in the early hours of Feb. 20, when she started complaining of chest pain, head pressure and dizziness, suddenly becoming "unresponsive." Choate suffered an amniotic fluid embolism -- a life-threatening complication that occurs when amniotic fluid enters the bloodstream -- that triggered cardiac arrest, leaving her family stunned and doctors racing to save her life.
After two minutes of CPR, a perimortem cesarean section (PMCS) was performed on Choate, and her baby was safely delivered just 33 seconds after the incision, at 12:51 a.m.
Choate, however, was intubated, and emergency IVs were placed in both her shin bones. Post-surgery, she experienced postpartum hemorrhage, requiring a massive blood transfusion.
"My body went into Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, a severe and life-threatening condition where the body's blood clotting proteins become abnormally activated throughout the bloodstream, causing clots and bleeding," she explains.
Although her heart was still beating, it was slowly failing, along with her lungs. As a result, doctors transferred her to another hospital, where she was placed on VA-ECMO, a life support machine that temporarily takes over the work of both the heart and lungs.
During the transfer process, Choate's fiancé and her mother were required to sign multiple documents acknowledging the risks, including worsening condition and death.
"I cannot imagine how hard that may have been for them," she shares. "They didn't have a handbook for my experience; they did the best they could with what they thought was best, and they did an amazing job."
At the time, Choate’s fiancé was stunned and overwhelmed, haunted by questions of what had gone wrong.
Torn between fear for Choate’s life and wanting to be with their child, he chose to spend every single night at her bedside in the hospital while their families helped care for their healthy newborn at home.
"As soon as he knew I was going to make it, he gave me confidence to push as hard as I had to," she says. "He knew how bad I wanted to be a mom, and this wasn't stopping me."
After 11 days in the hospital, Choate was discharged, but her recovery was far from over. Her C-section reopened twice at home, sending her back to the hospital and into weeks of painful wound care.
Swelling and daily treatments kept her from her own bed, forcing her to live out of her living room, where she slept with her legs propped up each night to manage the pain.
"It was hard - very hard," Choate admits. "But I would do it a million times over if I knew my amazing outcome."
Choate thanks both hospitals for their "immaculate" care and says the "patience, empathy, respect and courage" shown by every provider made her feel heard and validated.
"I would gladly trust them with my entire life again if I had to," she tells PEOPLE.
Now, nearly a year since her traumatic labor, Choate still struggles physically with pain in her back and near her C-section scar. However, mentally, she has trained herself to remain positive.
"I don't complain about laundry; I'm grateful to have enough clothes to create a basket of laundry," she explains. "I don't complain about baby toys in the living room; I'm grateful I have a baby to have toys for."
After also losing her grandmother, grandfather, and family dog all in 2025, Choate has learned to give herself grace as she pushes forward.
"It's truly hard to stay in a dark place for very long when I have my beautiful daughter smiling at me," she shares. "As the months go on, I find myself laughing and smiling every day because I've been given a second chance at life."
When asked if she would ever consider another pregnancy, Choate admits she remains undecided.
While stories of other survivors give her hope, the fear of risking her life - and leaving her daughter and family behind - keeps her uncertain. For now, Choate is "grateful" to be alive and says her family of three is doing "amazing."
"I know I have a reason to be here and it is to be her mom," she tells PEOPLE. "If there is something else out there, I will find it. But otherwise...being her mom feels like a dream."