Home Birthing Stories

Home birthing occurs much more commonly than most people in western society would believe. The reason for this prevalence is based on a variety of causes. This includes: people choosing to have a home birth, early deliveries, preference, and just bad luck at times… these are some home birthing stories that I have attended during my time as a paramedic.

I attended a patient with lower back pain who was currently 34 weeks pregnant. She had had 5 children before her, and seemed very confident that she wasn’t have uterine contractions. I believed her – after all, she was the one who had had 5 previous births. However, as I got further along in the assessment areas, I soon realised that she must be about to have her baby.

She tried to tell me that I was a fool and that she must have injured her back…

I oftered her Nitrous Oxide to inhale for pain relief.

As we arrived at hospital, the triage nurse recommended we go straight to the maternity unit. The maternity unit was on the 10th story (who puts a maternity unit on the 10th story?) – we got half way up and the elevator stopped. Precisely at this time, my patient turned around in her stretcher and said to me.. “I feel… I mean… I think I can push now…” – it was all over in the next 10 seconds…

It then took almost 25 minutes before we were rescued from the elevator. We hadn’t taken our maternity gear into the hospital with us, expecting not to be alone with the patient long enough not to use it…

Mum and bubs was fine in the end… but we had some explaining to do with the Midwife on duty…