A story of one family’s memorable birth

Published 7:35 am Friday, February 29, 2008

By Adam Brauch

Special to the Enterprise

The morning of April 14, is one we will never forget – for more reasons than one. This, just a day after my birthday turned out to be the date of birth for our daughter.

My mother has said several times since that day, “Who would have known that 33 years and 12 hours after your birth you would be delivering your own daughter.”

While we all know, home deliveries, births in the fields, etc., were once common place throughout our history, my question is, how did they do it without 911?

Our first child was born after 48 hours of labor, so even though we had been told that number two would come faster, we thought we had a little time. As soon as my wife’s water broke we called for someone to come and stay with our son. But things progressed very quickly so once our backup arrived, we hurried to the car and sped down the street.

We were not out of our cul-de-sac when my wife announced, “I feel like I have to push!” Quickly it hit me – this was really getting serious.

I called the hospital and said, “We are on our way in the car, and my wife is saying she feels like she needs to push.” They said, “Hang up and call 911.” With these words I knew where we were going and became very scared.

I called 911, saying “I’m in the car and my wife is saying she needs to push. I don’t know what compelled me to pull over where I did, but once I did, I knew something was going to have to happen. Now my account of what was exactly said is vague. My quotes are really just what I think I remember.

With 911, two things needed to be done first. The operator asked me where I was – I knew this was important. I needed to get this exactly right. “35th Avenue SE and …100 yards …(north or south) … south! of Seattle Hill Road.” OK, that was a big one.

When you are in the heat of the moment, simple things like north or south become very hard.

The next question was even harder. She asked for my phone number in case we got disconnected. Now this is a phone we rarely use, and I was about to shout “I don’t know,” but after a short pause I blurted it out really fast and hoped she got it.

Now her voice was calm, while my voice was freaking out. Let me just say, the real hero here is my wife. She’s really the one who did all the work. Mind you, while I’m giving location and phone number and throughout this birth, she is blurting out sounds that I have never heard before – leg-quivering screams.

911 asks, “Is the baby crowning?”

This is were I almost lost it, saying, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this,” … this is the part I tell everyone, she says, “you can do this, you can do this.”

Here’s where it goes really fast.

When I screamed, ‘The head, the head is out,” She said, “OK, you are doing fine” (or something like that) and with the next push, Wham! The whole body.

I said, “she’s out, she’s out!”

Now what? We are on the side of the road, it’s 40 degrees, lightly raining, I’m kneeling in the puddle with my head jamming the phone into my shoulder.

Thankfully, we had a towel. Just as a reflection, our first birth was 48 hours … this one was just 48 minutes.

Thankfully, our daughter started crying, and I’ll never forget the next two things said, “OK, I can hear her crying so that means she is breathing.’

Major relief. Then she says, “Time of birth, 6:28. Good job, dad!” Oh my, we did it! So here we were. Out of nowhere my mother pulls up in her car on her way to the hospital. Wow, how do mothers know?

Now, I’ve got everything: My wife is relieved, I’m on with this awesome 911 operator, my mother is here, and my daughter is sitting in front of me. 911 says, “Put the baby in-between the mother’s legs for warmth.” Smart!

What seemed like forever while watching my very purple daughter was probably less than a minute, the “Calvary” arrived. Yes! We are home free now, I thought.

The fire department and EMTs from Snohomish County Fire District 7’s B-shift were so solid.

I just remember noticing how calm they were in contrast to how wound up I was. In a way I wanted them to be wound up with me, but it was their calmness that eventually began to bring me back to reality.

The main guy, Jeremy Yoder, knew exactly what to do: another blanket, clamp and cut the cord, get everyone in the ambulance. It was so methodical and smooth and professional, and perfect, it was awesome. I remember at one point, looking out the window and having no idea were we were.

Where would we be without 911 and the B-shift guys getting there so fast? I think of all the variables that could have gone wrong. It scares me now even to think back. Even with everything going so well, I am not sure I would have done so well.

As it turns out, we got to the hospital in no time. We all know what traffic is like on a rainy Wednesday morning on Interstates 5 and 405. Thanks everyone for letting us by!

The only minor complication experienced was that my daughter’s temperature was found to be a little low – not a surprise considering she was born in an open car on a rainy 40 degree morning. After some time under the heat lamps and giving her some sugar water to raise her blood sugar level, she and my wife were feeling good.

Adam Brauch is a Mill Creek resident.