Woman's waters break while she is in the car with her 5 children: she pulls over and gives birth alone alongside the road
Giving birth is certainly a pivotal, all-consuming moment for any woman: there are those who can give birth in a relatively short time and without too much pain being experienced; and then there are those who, on the other hand, just want the ordeal to end as soon as possible and struggle and suffer when giving birth. Whatever the case, the expected arrival date is always planned well in advance, taking into account a margin of few days before and after the target date, in case there are any unforeseen events. For Heather Skaats, however, things didn't go this smoothly, and she was forced to give birth without the presence of a doctor or midwife. There were still three weeks to go before her expected delivery date, but suddenly Heather felt the contractions. And at that moment, she was in her car with her 5 other children. To be sure, she never expected (or planned) to have to give birth to her baby in the middle of a road.
For Heather Skaats, this was certainly not her first delivery, since she had already had many other experiences of this when delivering her 6 other children (one of her girls, suffering from cancer, unfortunately passed away at the age of only 4). And it is perhaps for this reason that, with great strength and courage, she managed to keep calm and have enough fortitude to give birth in a very unusual context.
In any case, remembering her previous deliveries, she was convinced that once the contractions started, she wouldn't give birth for another 8 or 10 hours, minimum. But, in this particular instance, she was very wrong: her contractions had started three weeks early and became more constant and frequent within only a few minutes. Heather was in the car with all of her children and she knew she would have to fly home, where she planned to give birth in a pool, and with the help of a midwife. Heather, however, did not make it in time, because her baby clearly wanted to enter the world ahead of time.
Heather pulled the car over and, after reassuring her children, got out of the vehicle. At that moment, he felt her water break: "I put my hand down there and his little head had started to come out very slowly, followed by his body. I didn't even have to push. It was very fast. I was on the phone with my husband, Nick, and 20 seconds later, I was like, 'He's here!' ".
After this lightening-fast delivery, the woman wrapped her newborn in a blanket, hugged him to her chest, and miraculously managed to get home, with her shocked children in the back seat. Thanks to the help of her 13-year-old daughter, she was able to expel the placenta in the shower; shortly after, her midwife arrived to help her and to carry out all the necessary health and safety checks. Reflecting on the moment of the unexpected street delivery, Heather said, "I think home birthing in the past has taught me to trust my body. Knowing the whole process, and how it should go, really helped me."
Congratulations to this super mom!
