‘She was going to be a beautiful mom’: Family mourns young woman who died during childbirth

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD/Gray News) - A Texas family is in mourning after a teenage mother died while giving birth.

Alex Sanchez, the father of 19-year-old Ariana Sanchez, told KCBD his daughter was excited about the chance to be a mom.

“She was just such a sweet girl,” he said. “Everybody wanted to be around her all the time.”

Ariana Sanchez died from complications while giving birth to her daughter.

The Sanchez family is celebrating the birth of her baby while at the same time mourning her death.

The child, who was named after her mother, was born healthy, weighing just over 10 pounds.

The baby’s father, Ezekiel Esparza, said he still remembers the day he and Ariana found out they were going to be parents.

“She was telling me, like, ‘The line’s not going away, babe; the line’s not going away,’” Esparza said. “So, I was like, I guess we’re going to have to do it then. I was happy, you know, because she’s the love of my life, like if I had to do it with anybody it would have been her.”

Esparza and Ariana Sanchez were together for more than three years, and during that time, he said she changed his life.

“She was the best thing that happened to me,” Esparza said. “I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in right now if it wasn’t for Ariana. She made me the man who I am today. She was going to be a great mom. She was going to be a beautiful mom.”

The excitement of the new baby quickly spread to Ariana Sanchez’s mother and father after she broke the news that they would soon be grandparents.

“I was so happy we were just so blessed,” Alex Sanchez said. “Like we couldn’t wait for her to get here, just a very exciting moment.”

However, there was no way the family could have predicted that Ariana Sanchez wouldn’t make it home after giving birth.

“To have this moment taken away from us,” her father said. “Her taken away from us, not here to get the chance to hold her baby, and it’s just so hard.”

The family said the weight of the loss of Ariana Sanchez is lightened at times by the life the late mother left behind.

“We’re so happy and so sad at the same time,” Alex Sanchez said. “We have to be happy for my baby. I’m glad she left us her. We have a piece of my baby here still, her heart.”

The Sanchez family has set up a GoFundMe account to help cover funeral expenses.