Kelly's birth story: Speedy birth in the family car (ep. 51)


Kelly: We labored at home. It would stop, it would start. There was no pattern. My husband called the doula, who lives in East Bay, and said, "This has been going on a while." We checked in with her in the morning and she said, "Okay, well, you know, I'll come over, I'll see what's going on." So she came in and [asked] “What are you feeling?” and I told her and she—you know, I got on my hands and knees and she very, very calmly, because she's a yoga instructor too, said, "You know, Miguel"—my husband—"go pack the car, it's time to go," you know, and I'm like, “I'm gonna be sick, I'm gonna,” you know. She's like, “Get sick, it's fine.”

We got into the car and started driving, and she started me with the late-stage labor breathing, and I'm like, "That's where we are? That's where—but I need the epidural, like that's what I need." She's like, "It'll be fine," you know, she was just a great coach and very calming. "You're fine," she said. "Your water hasn't broken." And as soon as she said that, my water broke, and then it's like on. So then, at the same time, my husband's on the phone with 911 and they're saying what's—“You have to pull over right now,” because they could hear me, and the dispatcher was saying, “You know, we need to take care of this you so pull over.” And he pulled over and both the doula and I said, "Don't pull—we're almost there." We were really, really close.

“Don't,” I just said. “I can't—I can't-—I gotta pu—it's coming”—like this is it. So the dispatcher asked my husband to get out of the car and check what was going on and he said, "Oh, you know, she's fine," and then I heard him say, "Uh-oh," because I think the baby was crowning.

I don't know how she got out of the car, but she did and she delivered the head. As soon as they opened the doors to the car, I could hear the sirens. There were just—there were just a ton of people there, and she delivered the head and passed it off to the head paramedic, this guy Sal.

The baby didn't cry right away, which is what, you know, Sal was concerned about, the head paramedic, and I think that's why he stayed with us a long time. They cut the cord, and then they put her on my chest and they wrapped us in a blanket and put us in the ambulance.

When we got to the hospital, the doctors met us outside and Sal came up with us, but they, you know, did everything else. There was still, you know, the afterbirth and, you know, there's still, you know, some fix-’em-up stuff and getting the baby weighed and bathed and all of that stuff.

And then I got embarrassed because it's like 2 or 3 ladder trucks and it's all the San Francisco firemen like, you know, I think they have a calendar.