Surrogate Baby Born in a Car

Vanessa shares how she delivered the baby she was carrying for someone else, on the way to the hospital

Wednesday night I started keeping track of my Braxton Hicks because they were coming a lot more frequently than they should be. They were 10 minutes apart.  Since I had an appointment scheduled with my doctor for the next morning,  I went to bed.   I arrived at my appointment excited that my Doctor might admit me if I had dilated. The contraction were between six to eight minutes apart. I figured the stress test she was planning on doing would tell me if they were real or still just Braxton Hicks since I was one day shy of 37 weeks.  They monitored me for about a half hour, and the nurse tells me, yes I am in active labor. She goes to call my doctor to see if she should check me.

My new doctor for this pregnancy just wanted me to come to my scheduled 11:30 appointment where she would check me. I met up with my intended mother and when the doctor checks, I’m 3cm dilated.  We were both excited, but my doctor said because my contractions were not intense enough for her liking she was sending me home. I was shocked! This wasn’t my first time having a baby.  I delivered my own child with no drugs, and I knew how to breathe through a contraction. I knew what to expected, and I was able to remain calm while having a contraction. I accepted the doctor’s orders and was on my way home. From 12:30 to 5:00 pm that day my sister and I kept track of my (still) inconsistent contractions which remained less than 10 minutes apart. As the pain level starts to increase, I told my sister we should go back to triage, maybe I’ve dilated dramatically by now.  So here we are again laying down on the hospital bed which I believe is a contraction calming device. Although I was in active labor, the contractions were still inconsistent.  The nurse checks me, and I was now 4cms.  While the nurse is with us, my doctor calls to see if I’ve been in yet. The nurse updates her, hangs up and informs me that I am still not going to be admitted and that I should come back when contractions are 5 to 3 minutes apart for an hour.  She does add that I am more than welcome to stay and walk around the hospital for a few hours. I was mad! I didn’t want to stay walking around while having contractions! How uncomfortable is that going to be? So I went back home again and back to my couch where I could continue to monitor my contractions as comfortably as possible.

As we’re sitting at home, I take a warm bath thinking it would make my contractions less intense…it didn’t help. What did help was ice cream and a cool wash cloth on my belly and my bath towel over my face while I breathed through my contractions. I was on my couch but kept headed back to the toilet because I felt the need to pee with every contraction I had – clearly a very good sign things were increasing. I would yell to my sister as I was having a contraction, and she would let me know how far apart they were. Disappointed as they were still INCONSISTENT, from 7-5-3 minutes apart. They were way more intense and not so easy to just breathe through them.

Finally, I tell my sister we just need to go. I didn’t like being so far away from the hospital at this point, plus I wanted drugs so I didn’t have to feel everything anymore. I wasn’t going to wait for 5-3 minutes for an hour. So we head out. She texts the intended mother telling her to head to the hospital too.   From my home to the hospital is about 20 minutes away, but probably only 10 minutes for us since we were going 90mph. As soon as we get in the car, my contractions are now consistently two minutes apart.  Yay!  On the freeway, we see some lanes blocked off for road work, and all I can think was “oh no a construction delay would mean delivering this baby while we sit in traffic.”  Thankfully we made it through, but as I have a contraction I tell my sister that I need to push, and I do. She’s yelling at me DON’T PUSH!…as I’m baring down with my hand braced against the driver’s seat headrest and the other against my passenger side window with the AC blasting in my face.  Two minutes later I have another contraction. I tell my sister I’m going to push and as the words came out of my mouth so did something down there… I unbuckle and reach down into my shorts and underwear and felt my water bag with the baby’s head almost like a half dome which I now know is called encaul. I am feeling my water bag! That is crazy! I was shocked by what it felt like opposed to what I thought it should feel like, it was almost like a thick plastic. So my body wants to push again, so I pull my underwear and shorts to the side, and the baby comes out just to his stomach busting my bag of water all over my passenger seat. As soon as he came out, my contractions stopped and so did all the pain which is such a nice calming feeling. Oh my god is all I was thinking. My sister is freaking out as she’s driving and looking at what just happen. I’m telling her not to look. I wasn’t sure what just happened and what she was looking at, plus, she needed to watch the road. She’s asking if she should pull over I said no because we were only two exits away from the hospital. I tell her to turn on the hazards and just go.

I don’t hear the baby so I put my finger in his mouth to scoop out anything that may be there, he makes a sound. A sound of acknowledgment saying “yes I’m ok.” A sigh of relief. I turned on the dome light, and I saw his eyes react to it, so that was even more of relief and made me surprisingly calm. His arms were near his face and moving a little. As far as I could see, he was ok. His head was right by my knees, tiny as could be, and I am still in the passenger seat of my car with my feet braced to the floor lifting my butt off the seat as to not sit on him knowing that he is still half way in me. I grabbed my towel and kind of shielded him as he lay before me as I’ve never seen a child before between my legs, it was so unreal. As we are still driving I start reaching for the phone thinking we need to call the hospital, and I’m telling my sister we need to let them know we’re coming, what do I say? Do I dial 911? Keeping as still as I can, I just focus on her safely running the red lights.

As we turn into the driveway of the hospital, she’s honking the horn which you think at a hospital would be the international language for an emergency. No one comes out. Only 20-30 people that were in and out of the lobby freeze and just watch. My sister gets out and runs in and tells them we have a baby in the car. The receptionist comes out with a wheelchair. We’re looking at her saying no this isn’t going to work; there is a baby still partially in me. She says she doesn’t know what to do.

At that moment, our superhero nurse comes up to the car after running down from the 3rd floor.  She knew the horn meant there was an emergency and tells me to push one more time and then she pulls him from out of my shorts and places the baby on my chest rubbing him asking for scissors to cut the cord. She then lays him in my lap and cuts the cord. He’s swept away into the hospital. I’m left in my seat with the cord just hanging there.  Gross yuck feeling. Parts I would have preferred not to feel. The doctors or other nurses place a blanket between my legs and move me into the wheelchair where they wrapped me in a warm blanket, and off we go, wheeled into the lobby and through a sea of what felt like millions of people staring at me. Probably thinking the same thing I was – that they couldn’t believe what was happening. I covered my face with the blanket as we make our way to the elevator.

Finally made it to the delivery room where the baby is examined, and they tell me he is doing very well. They help me out of my soiled clothes and into the bed where the on-call doctor checks me and has me deliver the placenta. She tells me I didn’t tear, and everything is ok. Once I hear that the baby is ok, and now someone is saying I’m ok, I start crying… I was balling! All the emotions that were set aside while keeping calm the whole time of the actual delivery were now coming out. My sister had just made it back into the room which made me cry more trying to absorb that this really happened. She said she talked to the intended mother and told her what happen that we were both ok and here at the hospital. She was still on her way. The nurses handed the baby to me so I could do the skin to skin until his mom arrived.  At this point, I was in a daze of shock or maybe the meds they gave me. Upon the intended mother’s arrival, she walked over to me, and we hugged, and she asked if I was ok. I handed her baby to her. Then the fulfilling moment of seeing what I’ve just been a part of comes full circle and made it all worth it.

And so the story begins.  My surrogate baby was born at about 9:30ish westbound on the I8 at about 80 miles an hour, as we passed the Qualcomm Stadium. He weighed 5 pounds, 13oz and came out with four pushes in my Saturn Vue.

Our bodies are made to deliver these babies regardless if we are ready or not. Our bodies do not discriminate if we are at home, in the hospital, or in a car. When it’s time, it’s time. Our bodies will tell us what to do. We are built to endure pain and become stronger when pushed to be. Our instincts are there for a reason you just need to trust in yourself and don’t forget to breathe.

-Vanessa

If you are interested in becoming a surrogate mother, TAKE THE QUIZ to see if you meet the basic qualifications.  Vanessa was a surrogate with A Perfect Match, Inc.  She has since returned to do another cycle and had unexpected triplets!