Baby's Choice

Maybe if parents won't make the choice, babies will. More and more babies are arriving at home or on the way to the intended birth location.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=83920

Quoted from News-Leader.com:

Wis. Couple Have Baby at Nearly 100 Mph
Mar 23, 2007 4:49 PM EDT

ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) -- Jereme Tauer Jr. was born at almost 100 mph as his parents hurtled down U.S. Highway 2 in northernmost Wisconsin in a Dodge Neon. His parents, Jereme and Lisa Tauer of Hurley, managed the birth without a doctor, pain medication or even stopping the car.

"We were just shocked," said the baby's grandmother, Billi Tauer of Hurley. "When (her son) called, he was so excited, and we thought it was just over the birth. He's like, 'Ma, ma, ma, we have a boy! We have a boy, we have a boy - and, and, and, you're not going to believe - he was born in this car!"

Lisa Tauer's contractions started about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Her husband took their 16-month-old daughter to his parents' home and then returned to take her to the hospital.

"By the time he came back, I was standing on the street and waiting for him to get in my car," she said. "By then, my contractions were 10 minutes apart. So I'm like, 'OK, we have time.'"

But as Lisa, a 28-year-old manager at Fashion Bug, and Jereme, a 29-year-old carpenter and mason, sped toward the hospital, her contractions became more frequent and her water broke.

"I felt like I needed to push, and he was telling me, 'Don't push, just breathe,'" she said. "I was like, 'I can't just breathe. The breathing's not working anymore!'"

She pushed "a little bit" and felt better. Then Jereme turned on the car's interior light, and the surprised couple saw the baby's head.

"I was like, 'I better push it all the way out,'" Lisa Tauer said. "So he was holding onto the head, while I was trying to push."

She reclined her seat as much as possible.

"I was like really high up, so the baby landed right on the seat," Lisa Tauer said.

Her husband was driving at 90 mph to 100 mph and trying to keep an eye on the road.

"I just kind of cradled him as he came out, and watched him, watched the road. Watched him, watched the road," Jereme Tauer Sr. said. "There wasn't even time to stop, to hit the brakes and stop."

With the six-pound, 13-ounce boy in the car, the couple spotted a squad car. Jereme Tauer flashed his lights, pulled over and explained the situation. The officer escorted them to Memorial Medical Center in Ashland, about 220 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

Jereme Tauer said one good thing about the experience is that he won't forget the moment his son was born.

"I had a good look at the time, because it's right by the dashboard," he said. "It was 4:35."

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


http://www.nbc15.com/sunprairie/headlines/11331976.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/family/14953330/detail.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/news/14607619/detail.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/family/5320195/detail.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/video/10011535/index.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/education/2803081/detail.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/news/132427/detail.html

And another:
http://www.wisn.com/news/1133558/detail.html

And another:
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/US/07/18/flood.baby.ap/index.html

You get the point. Babies choose to arrive when and where they want. They don't care who attends. In fact, I'm wondering if they are trying to tell us something. :-) According to this study, experience of the doctor means little to outcomes:

http://www.wisn.com/health/1458055/detail.html

The story of the detectives assisting in the delivery of twins shows even if you are clueless, it probably won't matter. There are techniques to assisting twins and breeches that make it safer, and they violated several rules for this special kind of delivery. Everything still turned out just fine.

The advice that people get from 911 operators is likewise often dangerous, particularly advice about cutting the cord. Nothing needs to be done with the cord, yet one 12 year old boy featured on the Today Show a few years back was advised to get a shoestring to tie off the cord. He got one out of his shoe! One place newborns are vulnerable to infection is the cord. One place tetanus is commonly found is in soil. One thing a person is likely to find on a young boy's shoestring is dirt!

A lot of dads in my classes are afraid that if HypnoBirthing makes birth so comfortable that mom may not know she's in labor that they will have to help deliver the baby on the way to their intended birth location. They get so freaked out sometimes you end up with stories like the one above where the lives of the entire family are put at risk by excessive driving speeds and risky maneuvering! Baby's come out. There is no need for such drama and danger to be introduced!

I hope what these many stories (most just from my own area in the last year or so!) convey is that if the baby is coming out that easily, all you have to do is remain calm and let mom do what her body knows instinctively to do.