Woman gives birth in her driveway

Hi, new to this blog. These are some pretty amazing, and scary, stories. But, all around a beautiful miracle of life. I have an interesting story. I don't have any children of my own, yet!! However, I've been a "mom" since a little girl. Anyway, when I was 11 yrs old, I lived with my aunt for the summer. She was pregnant and due just 2 1/2 weeks into my stay there. Well, that time come and gone. The doc. said this was normal (being her 1st child). One night while I was sleeping, I heard crying and weird noices coming from the bathroom. Now, my aunt and I were the only two in the house that night. So, I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom---To find my aunt sitting on the toilet, crying, sweating, breathing rapidly and blood on her hands. I @#$% my pants!! I ran to get the phone and dialed 911. Came back to the bathroom, by then she was on the floor, spread eagle, (to me at that time, real yucky everywhere), and I saw a ball of black hair coming from her vagina. I don't know how, where I got the strength and courage, or what was guiding me, but with no direction and my aunt in and out of concienceness (due to the pain and blood loss), I delivered that baby. I grabbed towels and wet them, grabbed a couple dry ones, grabbed a hold of the babies neck and head, and eased him out the as gentle, yet firmly, as I could. I was tending to my aunt, cleaning the baby, trying to clear out the babies mouth and nose, all while waiting for the ambulance to arrive (25 minutes later I might add) !!!!! Sorry this was so long, just wanted to share my story. I do have a few questions, but I'll ask in my next entry---have to go for now. Thanks for listening. God bless all you brave wonderful women.

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With our 1st, labor started at 10 min. apart and soon went to 3min to 5 min etc. Dr. told us to go to hospital, he met us and after exam said he was going home, baby wouldn't come till tomorrow, this was at 3 pm. At 9 I told nurse I had to push. I heard her tell my husband,"She's not ready its her 1st and she doesn't know any better so on next contraction I'll let her push so she'll see she's not ready" When the contraction started, she said OK you can push. When I started, both my husband and the nurse started to scream at me to blow and not push. Nurse screamed out the door to call the Dr. STAT. My husband said the baby was already crowning and he could see all the dark hair. I blew thru the contractions for 45 Min. till Dr. finally came and said push, took only 2 pushes. On our 2nd I went to Dr. for routine visit, it happened to be my due date. While doing the exam he said I was in labor and gave me 1hour to get my husband and bag and get to hospital. I wasn't having any pain. When we got to hospital it was 3pm, change of shift. They wouldn't even check me or put me in a room till new shift was on. They were mad that Dr. sent me, but kept me anyway. At 5:20 pains started and daughter was born at 8 with ONE push. # 3 was 1 week late and he came in 2 1/2 hours and 2 pushes at 10 lbs 10 oz. # 4 was 1 week late came in 3 hours 2 pushes, she was 9lbs 9 oz. Unfortunately the hospital she was born at stunk. At 10 pm they called my room to have me bring her back to nursery. A nurse came in just after and I never saw another human being until the housekeeper came in at 6:30am. A nurse finally came in at 7:15am. When the other 3 were born, they were always checking blood pressures, bleeding, temps every few hours and even came in late at night to see if you wanted a back rub. But the WORST was our military. I was having a hard time conceiving and on a visit I told the female Dr. how I was feeling. She sent me to fertility. They had an open appt. the next day. During our talk, I told him how I was feeling and he decided to do an exam. I was 3 mos. pregnant - she couldn't tell 24 hours before??? Unfortunately at 4 1/2 mos. I started to bleed. Was told on phone to wait to see what happened, don't come in. When I started having pains at 10 min intervals, we went to hospital and was told I was HAVING MY PERIOD and cramping! When shifts changed, a different Dr. came in and finally did an exam - they also had finally pulled my maternity records. He said they couldn't save baby and decided to PULL it out! NO MEDS,NO ANYTHING including husband, who was corpsman and wasn't allowed to stay in room in emergency room. Well I heard him tell nurse he broke baby and I needed to go up to maternity for a D+C. The witch (military nurse) put rest of baby in a container and put a paper towel around it and put it near my head on bed for transport. The toweling dropped away and I could see the baby. They then let my husband in, not telling him a thing. When I told and showed him, he held me for awhile and took baby and left the room. I could hear him yelling, and when he told her he was a corpsman, her whole demeanor changed. She wasn't dealing with a dumb husband/daddy. When they brought me to surgery I had to get off the stretcher and onto the table and stepped on glass! The nurse had to get someone to help her remove the glass and clean and bandage the wound. THEN since I had been bleeding for hours, they couldn't find a vein. Dr. had tried on back of hand, gave up and found one on inside of arm. My arm was taped to board during D+C which they said I'd sleep through but I was wide awake and heard everything. They had to make sure they got all the rest of my baby. When putting me in wheel chair, I saw opened needle on the back of my hand. It had already caused a hematoma and my vein was open the whole time I was in that surgical room. Since there was glass on the floor, how clean was that room. Dr. had left and nurse didn't know what to do, she left me in hall with my husband and he was livid when head nurse came to take care of it. My husband ended up taking care of it after he told her he was a corpsman. I lost 3 other babies in between our 4 kids, all at over 4 - 5 mos and at a NORMAL hospital and NEVER had ANY problems like that. Someone also wrote about people using ER needlessly. I agree totally. The sub base had an urgent care center after normal Dr. hours. When you were triaged, you were either given a number or told to leave and come back during normal working hours, the urgent care was for that, not an afterhours convience center for non-emergency medical care. Maybe our hospitals should start doing this too. The wait times at ER's would go down dramatically. Over the years with 4 kids I've seen people there who should be at a DR. or walk in, not the ER. Hangnails, pimples, etc. No wonder people who really need to be seen immediately have to wait for hours and hours. They should also limit the number of others who come with the hangnail patient. We once saw 25 people arrive at an ER with a child with a sore ankle - he was running around the waiting area the whole time causing a rukas. Meanwhile people who were hurt or really sick had no seats because of his entourage. The adults were also trouble for the staff by constantly asking how much longer, he needs to be seen NOW. There were broken bones, people bleeding, difficulty breathing, babies with high fevers but their little ANGEL (spoiled brat) was more important then them. They really got indignent when people coming in ambulances kept going ahead of the PRINCE. We were waiting for 3 hours before they came (son needed 15 stitches. They were still there 2 hours later when we were called in and righteously so. SEND THEM HOME. Then the rest of REAL emergencies wouldn't have to wait for so many hours.

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My mom was pregnant with my twin sister and I. She was 2-3 weeks overdue&was induced twice. Finally she had a c-section, and was awake the entire time(standard?). We both weighed 7lbs 13ounces and 7lbs 8ounces. Not everytime it is bad, all anyone can hope for is that the baby is healthy and that the mom is the same.

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honestly it can go either way, I've had a very few good experiences in the hospital emergency room and quite a few very very bad experiences. One time I was sent home from one ER only to go back to the other ER in town the next day and spend six weeks .. two of which I had a fever over 102 and still can't really recollect.

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This is exactly why women should just stay home to have thier babies! None of my three babies were born in a hospital. I chose to have homebirths. My last daughter was born in our bathtub, it was great! I didn't have to deal with nurses and doctors poking and proding and telling me how to give birth. Or telling me I'm not in labor! Not to mention the fact that studies show that homebirths are as safe if not safer than a hospital birth! Most of the other industrialized countries use midwives and homebirths, and their infant and maternal death rates are a lot lower than the great USA. Actually, the US is number 25 out of the top 25 industrialized countries for infant and maternal death rates!! The USA's almost 30% cesarean rate is against the World Health Organization's guidelines. WHO has stated that anyone with a cesarean rate above 10-15% is endangering mother and baby! Please look into midwifery before having your baby!!

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get ready for more deliveries like this, between insurance companies and the government, any professional preforming obstetrical care and deliveries will be stopping the practice of obstetrics as of 7/1/08, ask you doctor, better yet ask you state senators, and if from new york state, ask Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.

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My mom had already had 3 children when she went into labor with my sister. Of course, she went right to the hospital and told them she was in labor. They "the medical professionals" of course knew better and sent her home to relax. My sister, was delivered on the couch at home by the neighbor who grew up on a farm and had only delivered pigs before.

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As a homebirthing advocate.. I say glad they were wrong. She had a much better birth experience this way.

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Although a planned out of hospital birth can be one of the most wonderful experiences of a lifetime, an unplanned out of hospital birth can be very scary. This babe was so small. I am glad that there were no complications.
Each woman experiences labor and birth differently. Some women never feel any pain, until the moment of birth. Women dilate & efface at different rates also and this woman had no prior history to compare with. To say that the CP/nurse should have known she was in labor is just a guess, since none of us happened to be there at the hospital with her. Without more information, it's hard to cast blame. Although I'm one of the first to agree w/a woman's intuition and what her body is telling her.
Perhaps next time she will consider a PLANNED out of hospital birth and save herself the worry of going to the hospital and giving birth in the driveway! :D

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