Car Birth

Excerpt from Real Birth

Originally from Florida, Karen met her husband, Tim, while attending a boarding school near her present home in western North Carolina. She is the mother of three children: Brian age nine; Katie, age five: and Shelly age two and a half. It was about unusual birth, which took place in a car en route to the hospital, that Karen chose to speak.

I got pregnant with Shelley when Katie was about two. We had discussed having my tubes tied, and Tim was considering a vasectomy I think I got pregnant while using a sponge. I guess we must have been careless. It was a real shock! Tim was dumbfounded-we worried how in the world we were going to manage with three kids.

There was a local group of midwives that had just started practicing. Some of their patients were migrant workers, and they had Spanish-speaking personnel in the office. It was kind of nice. We decided to use these mid wives and associate with a hospital that was closer than the one in Asheville that we'd used for my other two kids. With Katie, I went from three cen timeters to complete delivery in an hour and a half, so I was advised to find a closer facilitv in case this next one came quick. It wasn't the most progres sive hospital, but they read over my birth plan and signed oft with the promise to do their best to honor my wishes. They had a tub I could labor in-I had done that with Brian and liked it very much. So that was very posi- tive, and I thought it would all work out.

Also, we hired a lay midwife, Nancy who had gone with us when Katie was born. And we decided not to take childbirth classes, figuring we'd done it twice before and didn't need a refresher.

My mother came up from Florida during the first week of October. The baby was due October 5. She had been there when Brian was born but had missed Katie's birth because she was working at the time. She was really excited to be coming for the birth. I'm an only child, and [think that binds us pretty tight.

I went into labor on a Saturday night. My husband works third shift and had the weekend off. I had been having contractions off and on all day- nothing to write home about, but Nancy came over in the evening just to check. It was eightish. The kids were settling into bed. We decided that I wasn't really in labor and prepared to have a normal night. The midwife left, and everyone went to sleep. But later, sometime before midnight, I went downstairs to the kitchen to call her again. I was still having these irregular contractions, and l thought should tell her before it got real late. She said, Well, I'd better come over and check you to put your mind at ease."

I took a shower and woke Tim- We let my mom and the kids sleep. I was ill having contractions, but they weren't regular and weren't particularly tense. Nancy arrived at about 12:30.1 lay down on my bed, and she told me I was doing something because I was somewhat effaced about four centtimeters. Then, right as she pulled her hand out, I had the must Cod- awf'ul contraction. I mean WHAM! She told me to lie still and went out into the living room and told Tim, "We're going to the hospital." She knew how quickly I'd had Katie and didn't want to take any chances.

I was wearing my housecoat. She told me to put my shoes on "NOW" that we had to leave. I wasn't in such a hurry. It's strange. l knew that I was definitely in labor, but I didn't rush. In fact, just as I began to look for my shoes, I said in a kind of offhand way; "We're not going to make it. And she's like, "Get your shoes on now! We're leaving!" I didn't have my hospital bag packed and wasn't dressed, so I said, "But I have to put my clothes on." All Nancy said was, "Karen. get into the car!"

I had been folding laundry before I went to bed. Nancy quickly grabbed handful of towels off my couch and put them on the front seat of her car. Tim got my mom and the kids up, and I got into the midwife's car. Tim was going to follow in one car, and my mom and the kids in a separate car.

Also, I had a girlfriend who was supposed to videotape the birth. But they wouldn't let me call her. I was really pissed off because when Brian was born, my camera was left in the car. And when Katie was born, the camera malfunctioned and we were left with an almost black photo of a crotch shot.

Anyway I wasn't very happy at this point In fact, I was coming up with all kinds of excuses just to avoid getting in the can Unconsciously I was resisting.

Later, Nancy told me that she also considered not getting into the car and having the baby at home. But my mom is extremely resistant to the idea of home birth. I was a preemie, and she had heard all kinds of horror stories. Anyway once my mom was awake, Nancy figured we needed to get to the hospital. She quickly called the other midwives and told them to get prepared again, because of my history with Katie.

The drive to the hospital is twenty minutes. Nancy was driving like a bat out of hell, The contractions were still not very regular. And with Katie, by the time we were going to the hospital, they were very regular. So I didn't know what to thin. Nancy gave me the option of going to a closer hospital, but I didn't want that because I'd end up with whoever was on duty and everything would be out of my control.

We were on Route 25 north. We passed the office where Nancy works, She thought about stopping there, but her office is at the top of a flight of stairs and there was no way she could get me up there, I'm a pretty big woman, and Nancy is tiny. Things were just rushing through her mind, and she decided to keep going. A little farther down the road, we picked up a cop. I mean, we were going very, very fast. Nancy just laid on the horn, flashed her flashers and just kept moving-through red lights and all!

So, now we have this cop chasing us with his blue light. Nancy's like, "I'm not stopping! He can just follow us and find out what's going on..."

I remember thinking, okay. I'm cool with this. Let's go! We kept driving, and my water breaks. Now, I'm having to pant and I fed like pushing. I yell out, "The baby is coming NOW!" Nancy whips to the left side of the road- not the side we're on because there's some really yucky houses and railroad tracks on that side. She ends up in the parking lot of this little, one-horse used-car dealership. And you ain't never felt anything till you have a baby crowning and somebody puts on the brakes!

The cop pulls over right beside us. Nancyjumps out and runs over to my side of the car. The glove box is broken in her little Subaru wagon, and like I said, I'm not small. She tells the cop, "I've got a lady here who's fixing to give birth." And the cop is like, "Yeah, right." Then he takes a look at me and realizes we're serious.

Well, Nancy gets out her birthing kit and dumps it on the dash. We're not talking sterile conditions here! I have to lift myself out of the seat, hold on to the roof of the car. I was wearing a sanitary napkin and panties. I remember Nancy asking, "Is it okay if I cut your panties?" I'm like, "Cut away!" And out comes Shelley's head. The cop meanwhile is trying to hold my hand. I remember shoving his hand away and screaming, "Get off me!" I don't know what his family situation is, but I was trying to concentrate and didn't want some stranger touching me. In retrospect, I feel kind of bad -- he was only trying to help.

And so the baby was born. Nancy left the cord attached and handed Shelley to me all wrapped up in one of the towels she'd grabbed from my njcb. We opened my nightgown and laid the baby skin-on-skin with the wel wrapped around us.

Then Tim arrives. He comes up to the driver's side, and I pull the towel back and show him the baby's head. I remember feeling around and saying, I think it's a girl!" But I didn't look, It was cool out, And I wanted to keep her covered up.

After Tim came, an ambulance pulled up. They cut the cord somewhere long in here because they needed to take the baby from me in order to help me out of the car. I still hadn't delivered the placenta. While they were try ing to decide what exactly to do with me, my mother pulled up across the street andjust waited there. She didn't want to get the kids out I guess she was afraid that they'd see too much.

By this time, there's three or four police cars along with the ambulance- everyone wants to see what's going on. They help me from the car, get me into a wheelchair, and onto a stretcher. They want to take me to the hospital right away They don't even want to check me. But Nancy wants me to deliver the placenta and is really concerned. She keeps insisting, and they finally hand her a bowl-but they aren't happy Then, my uterus won't go down. Nancy has to keep her hands on me, and the ambulance driver doesn't want to move until we're all strapped in. But Nancy doesn't feel safe tak ing her hands off me. She told them, "I can't let go of her uterus-she'll bleed!" And once again, they let her have her way

Nancy stayed with me. Tim drove her car because he wanted to clean it up. Actually it wasn't really all that messy~between the towels and the san itary pad.

Everything worked out fine. The story of Shelley's birth made the news paper the next day And during Christmas, just a couple of months later, peo ple were still talking about her birth. I remember my husband's Christmas party at work. I came in carrying the baby and everyone kept saying, "Oh, there's the baby that was born in the car!"

Copyright © Madeira Books. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with Permission