{"id":287930,"date":"2023-04-04T12:34:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=287930"},"modified":"2023-04-03T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T21:25:46","slug":"placenta-previa-surprise-home-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/placenta-previa-surprise-home-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"After weeks of bed rest for placenta previa, mom surprised by home birth"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily of Live Action or Live Action News. This article has been minimally edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

After having four children, my husband Jonathan and I had outgrown our tiny starter home and decided to move 60 miles away to be closer to family. We became pregnant again and were excited to be expecting our second daughter. However, things took a turn for the worse when, all of a sudden, I started bleeding heavily at 12 weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I was at a children\u2019s museum with my other four children at the time, which was over an hour away from my OB\/GYN. But since we were with other family members, I was able to leave my kids with them and drive myself to my doctor (my husband was at work), praying the whole time to not lose the baby.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After arriving at my doctor\u2019s clinic, he performed an ultrasound and found that the baby was still alive and doing well, and also that I had placenta previa<\/a>. I was immediately put on bed rest for several days, after which I was restricted to extremely limited activity \u2014 I could only go up and down the stairs in my house one time a day, no bending over, no lifting more than eight pounds (which meant I couldn\u2019t hold my one-year-old child), no twisting, no squatting, etc. It was like this for eight weeks, and I kept bleeding for six weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, at the 20-week ultrasound, we found out that the placenta had moved and I was no longer considered high-risk.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

The baby was due on February 9, 2022, but my husband\u2019s work was doubling the amount of paternity leave they were giving to their employees beginning on February 14.\u00a0 I had never been pregnant past my due date, but we thought we might try making it five days past the due date to see if we could get the extra paternity leave. In fact, for all of my four other children, I was induced a week early and fully medicated. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everything was perfectly planned, from who would watch the other kids while we were gone, to which friends or relatives we wanted present during the birth, down to which day of the week would work best for us to have a baby.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, on the evening of February 12 at about 7:45 p.m., I started feeling uncomfortable. I had decided to spend the day in bed to see if I could make it 48 more hours, but at about 8 p.m., I started timing my contractions. I noticed they were getting closer and closer and the pain was intensifying. My husband was putting the kids down to sleep, and by 8:30 p.m., he had put the last child to bed, and we decided we were going to the hospital. We called a neighbor, my husband got in the car, and I told him I was going to use the bathroom and then I\u2019d get in the car.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo: Elizabeth Todd<\/p><\/div>\n

However, once on the toilet, I had the uncontrollable urge to push, so I did.\u00a0 My husband came back inside to check on me and once he saw me, decided to call 911. The dispatcher asked, \u201cIs she bleeding?\u201d I reached down to check, but that\u2019s when I felt my baby\u2019s head! I had NO IDEA I was this close to giving birth. The dispatcher then instructed my husband to get me off the toilet and onto the floor, and then there was a knock at the door. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our neighbor, Natalie, a quiet reserved mother of two, had come over, and when my husband answered the door, he said, \u201cHi!\u00a0 Do you want to come help me deliver a baby?\u201d They both hurried back upstairs to where I was, and Jon grabbed towels while Natalie held my head. Another push came and the baby\u2019s head was out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo I remove the sac?\u201d Jon asked the dispatcher.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe what?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe sac. The baby\u2019s head is still in the sac.\u201d My water had not broken yet and the baby was being born in the amniotic sac.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to,\u201d replied the dispatcher. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not touching a thing!\u201d Jon replied, for fear of causing another medical emergency. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just then, EMTs arrived and opened the door announcing their presence. Jon called to them to come up the stairs, which they did \u2014\u00a0and right when my last push came, the water broke. Chris Montgomery of the Kaysville Fire Department caught the baby at 8:39 p.m. We then ended the call with the dispatcher, which turned out to be about six minutes long.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCute little fella you got here!\u201d said Chris.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a boy!?!\u201d Jon and I both surprisingly asked. But Chris was not declaring the gender, just merely commenting on the healthy baby. The baby was indeed a girl, like we had been expecting \u2014 eight pounds even and 20 inches long.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo: Elizabeth Todd<\/p><\/div>\n

We were then calmly transported by ambulance to the hospital where the placenta was delivered and the baby and I were examined. After a 24-hour stay, we made it home in time to see the kids off to school for Valentine\u2019s Day<\/span>. And, Jon\u2019s work decided to give him that extra paternity leave time.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

But the biggest miracle of this whole event was that the other four children, ages seven and under, slept through it all, even though their bedrooms are just 10 feet away from our bedroom door!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The name we had picked before our daughter’s birth was perfect: Abigail Noel Todd. Noel means \u201cthe birth.\u201d We had no idea at the time we picked this name that she would have an unusual birth. We are so grateful that everything turned out well in the end and we are now blessed with five beautiful, happy children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that as little as $10 a month is enough to reach more than 3,000 people with the truth about abortion that no one else is telling them? Click here to start saving lives 365 days a year.<\/strong><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily of Live Action or Live Action News. This article has been minimally edited for clarity. After having four children, my husband Jonathan and I had outgrown our tiny starter home and decided to move 60 miles away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":931,"featured_media":287933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,9455],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAfter weeks of bed rest for placenta previa, mom surprised by home birth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After weeks of bed rest with her fifth child due to placenta previa, Elizabeth was no longer high risk but was then surprised by a home birth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/placenta-previa-surprise-home-birth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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