When I was pregnant with my daughter, who is 18 months old now, several people asked me if I planned to go out-of-town to have my baby. This obviously raised some red flags because I did not plan to go out-of-town. I later found out that many women go to bigger cities to give birth despite the fact that all the nearest cities were 3-4 hours away. The reason they leave town is because they do not trust the local hospital to be able to handle any complication during delivery. I myself not only had some good friends that experienced difficulties with the local hospital when their daughter was delivered prematurely, but my own husband almost lost his son, from his first marriage, due to complications caused by the doctor who delivered my step son. My step son, to this day, suffers from an injury he received when he was delivered that could have been avoided and would have been if they were at a different hospital.
Despite all this, I still chose to trust my local doctors because I was confident that my situation was different from that of my husband’s ex-wife (I didn’t have gestational diabetes and my daughter was not measuring 11 lbs prior to her birth) plus I was deathly afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the hospital in time if we had to drive too far to get there. Luckily, my 6 pound 6 ounce daughter was born with no difficulties so I never regretted my decision to stay.
However, a woman in Texas recently experienced what I feared might happen to me. She was on her way to the hospital when she ran out of time and her little boy decided to be born in transit! Luckily, her husband was there to coach her through the process and offer his support as she delivered their 10 pound baby which they named Josiah! Luckily, amidst driving, coaching, encouraging, and assisting the husband also managed to record the whole event! You have to see this!
Many people criticize the husband for not pulling the car over once they realized they wouldn’t make it to the hospital. However, this birth went much faster than anyone could possibly have predicted despite having had 2 children previously. Maybe the births of their daughters took longer and they didn’t consider that each consecutive birth often goes quicker than the one before. In his defense, he did pull over when his son was physically being born. I personally commend this couple! Childbirth without an epidural is no joke to go through. I gave birth to my son 6 months ago today and only experienced hard labor for 2 hours before I got my epidural and the pain is still fresh in my mind. I never want to experience labor pains again! Plus that was no small baby that she delivered! I know many women go through childbirth with no pain control every day, whether by choice or circumstance, but that doesn’t negate the fact that delivery is painful and this woman handled it extremely well.