The upcoming Indianapolis 500 (otherwise known as the Indy 500) requires participating automobile drivers to be gutsy and fearless in their racing; it is these exact traits that led organizers in their choice of the 2023 green flag waver: a mom. While motherhood requires many selfless sacrifices, Bailey Rogers recently put her own life on the line in order to save her two children while pregnant with a third. Miraculously, both her courage and her pregnancy ended up saving all four lives. Here’s more about her story:
Indiana resident Rogers was 34-weeks pregnant last Fourth of July with two small children already, but when disaster struck, she feared she may have lost her preborn child. She explained what happened on that day to media outlets, saying: “Honestly don’t really know how it happened, what happened. I just saw a car coming at my kids, and I pushed them out of the way, and I got taken under the car.”
When she got pinned under a car after pushing her children to safety, Rogers was severely injured — but she was once again thinking about the health of her babies. She told responders at the scene that she was “pretty sure my baby’s dead” but that she wanted to do everything she could for her preborn child. That meant being rushed to a nearby hospital for an emergency C-section before Rogers took a LifeLine flight to a different hospital for care of her own.
(Click HERE to read another heartwarming story on the SFLA blog entitled “Baby Born Four Months Premature with Severe Complications Grows Up and Gets Drafted to the NFL.”)
“My femur was completely snapped in two,” Rogers said. “I had a hip dislocation, my pelvis, my pelvic ring, my hip ball joint, it was all completely shattered.”
With the help of amazing doctors, both Rogers and her baby are alive, well, and recovered today — and Rogers says she also has her youngest child, Rayleigh, to thank for that. According to her doctors, Rogers would not have survived if she had not been pregnant. This is because during pregnancy, a mother’s bones become much more durable, and her injuries were consequently less severe.
Dr. Jessica Rachel Starr, an endocrinologist MD who specializes in bone health and metabolic bone disease, explains this phenomenon by stating, “The basic story is that pregnancy is a good state for the bones. When you’re pregnant, you have very high levels of estrogen, and estrogen is very good for building bones.”
Due to this fact, Rogers calls Raleigh “Miss Miracle Baby,” saying, “She kept me alive, and I kept her alive, so she’s my miracle baby.” Rogers will be sharing the story of her family’s miracle during the opening ceremony this year of the Indy 500 before waving the green flag, and she wants her main message to be “Don’t ever give up.”
The lesson that Rogers is sharing with the world is an important one as many can live in fear of how they will make it through hard situations. That includes every one of us, and indeed, women and families in unplanned pregnancies, as well. When the future seems uncertain, we can all be afraid — but we also can all learn three things from Roger’s story:
- Always walk in love for others, even when it looks hard.
- Let yourself be helped by your community through trying times.
- Share your story for inspiration and give that same assistance back.
(If you are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy or know someone in that situation who needs help, visit Students for Life of America’s life-affirming initiative Standing With You. Whether you need assistance with childcare, finances, housing, counseling, etc., Standing With You is here to help with what you need.)
Beyond those lessons, we’re just cheering on the amazing love that mothers have for their children. Rogers was ready to give up her life for her kids — so she’s definitely a great choice to say, “Ready, set, go!” If you’re watching the Indy 500 this weekend, keep your eye out for this woman who has won our hearts through her selfless mother’s heart.
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