the roadside birth adventure of zinnia sue

In my line of work, almost nothing beats repeat clients. I love attending the birth of siblings, and I never grow weary of feeling honored to be invited back. In January I was set to attend the birth of a 3rd sibling, a baby girl after two boys that I had watched their brave mama roar into the world while their tender papa supported her.

I got the call that it was go time early one morning and boy did I know that it was go time after hearing the sounds Leah was making. I jumped in my car, sure I would not make it to the birth center in time. 20 minutes later I got a call from daddy telling me they had barely made it down the road before delivering on the side of the road.

This is their story.

(scroll to see pictures)

I am certain I set myself up for a roadside delivery after weeks of joking with my co-workers about not making it out of the county due to a January blizzard and showing up in the emergency department where I work to give birth to my third child. This was my first winter baby, and weather and road conditions made me a little anxious about the drive to the WNC Birth Center in Asheville, a 45 minute drive in good conditions, where I planned to birth my third (and final) baby. We had no problems making the drive to the birth center with my second son, but every night that I clocked out and walked out of the hospital emergency department, I would take inventory of the nursing staff and doctor on shift making note if it was a good night to show up to have a baby in the ER or not. Don’t get me wrong, I work with some pretty great people, but some doctors and nurses would be better than others for catching babies in the ER.

At 40 weeks and 2 days, I had my 40-week appointment at the WNC Birth Center. I told the midwife, Angie, that I literally thought I felt a baby between my legs after squatting while helping a patient with a leg splint at work. I felt crazy for telling her this, but she confirmed my perception. I was 4-5cm dilated and 80% effaced, almost halfway there! Baby was ready to pop out anytime now. The midwife swept my membranes trying to encourage baby to make her appearance and told my husband and I to stay near Asheville for the day rather than making the drive back to Brevard. We were sure we’d be returning sooner than later to meet our daughter. And January 16th would be an excellent birthday as she would share it with my best friend from school days. We went out for lunch, washed the car, and ran some last minute errands. Contractions were very mild and very irregular the entire day, and I actually attended a 4-hour CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention class for work in Asheville that afternoon through the occasional soft tightening in my lower back. After the class, J and I decided to head home as this baby wasn’t coming out today, and I would subsequently be pregnant FOREVER! 

For 2 weeks prior, my parents had been on standby both day and night anxiously awaiting for the phone call to come watch our boys while J and I headed to the birth center. I was concerned this was my hang up and why baby wasn’t coming. My parents live about 20 minutes away plus the drive to the birth center. I was in labor for 11 hours with my first, 6 hours with my second, and if baby number 3 followed suit, I was predicting a somewhat short labor and delivery. So we asked J’s parents to come stay the night at our house the day before baby sister decided to make her grand appearance! We would’ve had a homebirth rather than roadside if we had tried waiting for my parents to make the 20-minute trip to our house. 

So I woke up at 3:33am to a fairly strong contraction that lasted over a minute. Awesome, hooray! I had taken half of a Tylenol PM before going to bed, a fairly regular regimen I had adopted for about a week due to intense nighttime itching and insomnia, and likely with the help of the little 12.5mg of Benadryl, I quickly fell back to sleep after the first contraction. I then woke up to another strong contraction at 3:47am. 15 minutes apart, I thought to myself, I still have time to catch some zzz’s before heading to the birth center. And then 4:05am. Stronger now, unable to open my eyes, had to focus on my breathing, and do some slow counting through the contraction. I thought about calling the on-call midwife at this point and making our way to Asheville, but I thought it was silly to make our move to the birth center after 3 contractions that were a measly 15 minutes apart. I wasn’t really meeting the 5-1-1 criteria, but the contractions were getting significantly stronger. (After the fact, I remembered that at my 39 week appointment, Melissa the midwife had emphasized the getting stronger part rather than focusing on frequency of contractions with this being my third baby, but I totally forgot in the moment.) And then another at 4:22 and 4:45am. I then had the urge to go to the bathroom. Pooping through contractions is not easy, and this is when contractions really started picking up, every few minutes it felt like now. I came out of the bathroom at 5:00am and told J we needed to go to the birth center. He frantically got dressed and then helped me get my shoes on. We grabbed our last minute bags and walked outside while J was on the phone with the on-call midwife, Rani, at 5:14am. J also called our doula, Helen Joy. At this point, I was having very strong contractions about every three minutes that I could not walk or talk through and was making all of the moaning, transitioning noises. Luckily this wasn’t my first birth, and J is very familiar with all of my laboring noises and mannerisms. We both had a feeling we weren’t going to make it to the birth center. He sped through town, 60 to 70 mph with hazard lights flashing. We even drove by a cop car parked at Food Matters. Oh please, don’t pull us over. The cop didn’t even move. He probably knew better.

As we came over Little Mountain, I kept looking at the clock with every contraction, 5:17, 5:19, 5:21, 5:22. I do not recommend sitting in front of clock during transition, very discouraging, and I felt like we were crawling down the highway despite the speedometer reading 70mph. And then I said it, the exact phrase I had said twice before, just minutes before my two sons were born…  “I don’t want to do this anymore.” On the phone the entire time with the midwife, J drove maybe another half mile before pulling over just before Turkey Pen access area and less than a half mile from the county line. Baby was coming. My body needed to get her earth side. J called dispatch, and first responders were at the car moments later, and then EMS. As a nurse in the emergency department, I work closely with EMS. We all know each other well, and through the blur of labor, I remember Emily, the paramedic, coming to my side of the car and saying, “It’s Leah!” Through what felt like one continuous, never-ending contraction, Emily told me the impossible. “Leah, we need to get you out of the car and to the stretcher. ” Nope, can’t do it, impossible, not through these contractions. I could not move at this point. I just needed to push this baby out. Emily grabbed my legs and another responder, not sure if it was Donnie the other paramedic or a first responder but I remember it did not smell like J, turned my torso so my legs were now out of the car, and with this change in position, baby was coming! I told the paramedics to stop and with two big pushes, baby was out. Emily caught her, and I quickly took her to my chest as she let out a little cry. 

A paramedic asked the baby’s name, and after the wild ride of a delivery, I needed some time to make sure the name we had picked out prior to birth was going to fit this wild child. Baby and I both checked out great once in the ambulance, but I still had not delivered my placenta. With a pending placenta delivery and due to the location and speed of the delivery, I agreed to make the ambulance ride to the Transylvania Regional Hospital emergency department rather than getting back into our Prius and continuing our trip to the birth center. 

When we rolled through the ER doors, I first saw Amber, and she made a gesture as if she had won the bet and correctly guessed the 32-year-old roadside delivering mama. I was embarrassed and hung my head in shame, but I was so relieved to see Amber, a dear friend, coworker, and previous L&D nurse. I quickly realized that my worst nightmare of showing up to the ER was actually going to work out in my best interest. My coworkers provide great care to all patients, but we really go above and beyond when taking care of our own. Baby and I were getting priority care, and my coworkers gladly obliged to my refusal of most standard ER interventions- IV access, blood draw, etc. My coworkers don’t get excited about my resting heart rate of 48, and they know this isn’t my first unmedicated birthing rodeo. Dr. Huggins was totally onboard with discharging me after a little intramuscular Pitocin to help deliver my placenta and send me on my way to the birth center where the midwife would take over our care. I fear that hospitals in neighboring counties wouldn’t have let me go so easily and definitely would have required more explaining on my part. 

Our birth doula and photographer joined us in the emergency department as well as my parents. We then drove to the birth center where Melissa the midwife and Asha the nurse continued mine and baby’s care for the afternoon. Our two older sons, Roan and Carver, and J’s parents met our sweet baby sister at the birth center, and then we were discharged home later that afternoon. Having a third child wasn’t exactly in the plan for J and I but our family certainly feels complete with a sister now.

After looking at Turkey Pen area trail maps (think Squirrel, Bradley, Cantrell, Mullinax) and road names (280, Boylston, Limousine), we decided to stick with our original baby name, Zinnia Sue. Zinnia seemed wild enough to fit our wild child, and J and Roan filled our home with cut stems from our zinnia patch all summer long while our baby sister grew in my belly. And Sue after my great aunt.  She is currently 100 and still lives independently. I have so many great memories of visiting her house at Wolf Mountain while growing up. Sleeping weighted under colorful handmade quilts, the smell of biscuits and bacon swirling up the stairs from the wood cook stove in the morning, fishing from a rinky-dink johnboat on Tanassee Lake, visiting and singing with other mountain folk, and all of her stories and most amazing laugh. I pray that our children get to experience and appreciate Appalachian culture and history and the treasures that come with unhurried mountain living.

erica's story | the birth of elliott boone

I got the call it was baby time in the wee morning hours. I drove through the rolling hills outside of Asheville as the full moon lit my path. When I arrived to their home it was giddy with excitement. As the birth tub filled we all laughed between contractions. Erica stood as ripe as the moon outside, bathed in a glorious glow. The kind only laboring women have. She worked hard in the darkness and when it felt impossible, the sun rose and brought warm light into the birth room. Aiyana woke up to see her sibling born and brought in her treasured box of jellybeans that she had faithfully saved for lavver day (labor day). (Not pictured me swaying her to sleep on my hip as I took pictures).

Erica pushed for several hours and then delivered her baby into her own hands. It was a surprise boy, as they had been thinking all along it was a girl. Elliott Boone ended up having a really big head which is why it took his mama so long to get him out.

This birth was so full of joy, even in the midst of such hard work. The family was surrounded by women who held space for them. It was safe and warm just like the rising sun outside the window.

At the end of the day when everyone was tucked in, Aiyana whispered to the baby,

“Welcome to Asheville, welcome to the club, welcome to the family.”

the birth of milo | kris and maria's story

I met Kris and Maria in a local coffee shop and fell instantly in love with them. We all connected in a million tiny ways. I was honored to hear their story-5 failed IUIs for Kris, a miscarriage for Maria- and then finally their journey to meet baby Milo began. I was thrilled when they asked me to be their doula.

During our prenatals, it became clear that the main thing Maria, as the birthing mother, needed was to feel that she was in control, even though she knew she couldn’t really be (because not having control is birth in a nutshell). We set up plans and back up plans and talked about all the options. In the end they went into the birth with open hands and a kick ass birth team.

Things began with a hiccup as Maria developed gestational diabetes that was hard to control and induction was talked about and then decided upon. Before Maria could even lament, there were cheers from every direction for the informed choice that SHE had made. When they went home to have one last good nights sleep and get everything ready….her water broke. They both stuck around to finish the season finale of Masked Singer (which seriously cracked me up) and then they headed in to have their baby! Maria labored for 25 hours. Those hours were filled with tender moments as Kris supported her every need. They were filled with moments we all held our breath, prayed and watched her do the work that no one else could do for her…and it was freaking hard work. I saw her let go of her plans but she did it from a place of strength, not coercion.

The magic of watching parents be born is equally as magic as watching a baby be born and this was especially true of these two women. I couldn’t stop crying as I watched their faces go from shocked to elated to dumbfounded.

Milo Jax was born into an ocean of deep love and I feel honored to have been a witness to it all. I am so thankful for the gift of the birth photos that I’m able to snap in between doula support…they tell the story so well.