Mum drives herself, baby home after dramatic roadside birth witnessed by five other kids
By Merryn Porter |
When it comes to birth stories, we have pretty much heard them all.
Whether it is going into labour at home, giving birth in an unusual place, or not quite making it inside the hospital.
Now a US woman has given birth to her seventh child while on the side of the road with her children looking on - before driving herself home straight afterwards.
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Heather Skaats, of Kentucky, told the US TODAY show she noticed she was having light contractions on Sunday, but with her due date still three weeks away, and a history of long labours, she decided to run an errand.
Thinking she had "eight or 10 hours" before she delivered, Skaats, 34, set off behind the wheel of her van, with her five older kids inside, when her contractions suddenly intensified and started coming very close together.
She started to drive faster in the hope she would make it home for her planned water birth, before it became clear it was too late.
"I pulled over กช assured the kids that everything was OK กช and then I grabbed my phone and got out of the van," she said.
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She immediately went into the squat position on the ground before her water's broke.
"I put my hand down there and his head started coming out with his body," she said.
"I didn't even have to push. It was so quick. I was on the phone with my husband, Nick, and 20 seconds later, I was like, 'He's here!'"
Skaats caught the little boy, who weighed just over three kilograms.
"He started crying right away, and he just opened his eyes and looked at me and I said, 'Yeah, buddy that was fun, huh?'" she said.
With the baby still attached to her placenta, which she was yet to deliver, Skaats carefully got back inside the vehicle, where her children were waiting.
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"I wrapped him in a blanket and drove with him close to my chest," she said. "I think the kids were in shock. They were pretty quiet."
Back at home, she delivered the placenta with the help of her oldest daughter, Kaelynn, 13, before the midwife arrived to check over her and the baby.
"We had to pick the grass off him," she said.
Skaats said having given birth at home in the past helped her to remain calm and "trust my body."
Skaats is also mother to Kaelynn, Aneleigh, 11, Austin, 6, Luke, 3, and Alyssa, 2. Another daughter, Leilah, died of cancer in 2016 when she was just four.
She and Nick are still working on a name for the newest family member, and are considering Porter or Wolf กช both streets near where he was born.
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