Shania Twain’s Mom Lit a Cigarette After Giving Birth to Her

Shania Twain has had a long and winding road to stardom, starting from the moment she was born. The Canadian country singer almost didn’t even make it out of the hospital room where she was born.

Shania Twain’s mom thought she gave birth to a stillborn and lit a cigarette

From the moment she was born, Twain’s story was unconventional, to say the least. In her 2011 memoir From This Moment On, Twain reflected on her birth in a Canadian hospital room — and how she almost died right then and there.

“[My mother] Sharon’s delivery is long and complicated, with not enough relief for her pain. No epidural,” she recounted.

Soon, the doctors discovered something was wrong. “The obstetrician’s voice betrays little hope as he informs her that the baby is breech, no longer moving, and is still in the birth canal,” Twain said. “When she is finally delivered, there is no sound, no movement, no life.”

Struck with the realization that she had given birth to a stillborn, Twain’s mother decided to spark up a cigarette. “While Sharon lies on the delivery table, the doctor quietly hands her a cigarette and lights it. That’s right: a cigarette, in the delivery room,” she said. “The young woman understands that she has to be prepared for the worst. She’s delivered a blue baby, stillborn.”

“Except, miraculously, the baby girl is alive!” she continued. “Even more remarkable, she will have suffered no ill effects from the temporary lack of oxygen during the stressful delivery. (Not to mention the smoky delivery room!)”

That baby, of course, went on to become a worldwide country superstar.

Twain’s mother called her birth the ‘worst’

Twain’s birth was a rollercoaster for both Twain and her mother, to say the least. Her mother would tell her often how difficult her birth was.

“While I was growing up, my mother used to frequently tell me the story of my turbulent, dramatic entrance into the world — he worst of her four deliveries, she always said,” Twain remembered. “Looking back, sometimes I can’t help but think to myself, ‘So that’s what happened to me.’ Ha! It explains a lot.”

Still, it was an exciting occasion for her. “In this smoky Canadian delivery room on August 28, 1965, I was born. The same year the Rolling Stones had their first number one hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Malcolm X was assassinated, and the movie musical The Sound of Music was released,” she said. “My birth wasn’t as noteworthy as the more history-making moments taking place that year, for but for my mother, a miracle had happened. We both survived that difficult birth.”

Her parents died in a tragic accident

In 1987, when Twain was just 22 years old, both her parents died in a car accident, leaving her to care for her younger siblings. She looked back on the difficult time — and the difficult decisions she had to face — in her 2022 Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl.

“At the time I just really wanted to quit and get a real job,” she said. “I’ve got kids now; I’ve got kids to support. How am I going to do it?”

She soon started singing at a local resort in Ontario to make money, and she was able to support her family while also pursuing her dream of being a professional singer. “I was able to support my brothers,” she said of the gig. “I was able to make enough money to put food on the table singing at this resort.”