Woman Delivers Own Baby While Driving
A Utah woman is making national headlines for delivering her healthy baby boy while pulled over on the side of a highway.
Mariah Ostler was traveling 75 mph in the fast lane of I-15 Saturday when her water broke.
“I knew the baby was coming and it doesn’t help to panic. So, I just stayed calm and said, ‘Well, if I deliver it on my own then I deliver it on my own. If somebody gets here, somebody gets here. The baby is here. There’s not much more I can do about it,'” she said Sunday from her room at Brigham City Hospital while holding her newborn son.
Fortunately for Ostler, help was on the way in the form of Utah Highway Patrol trooper Josh Carr and Willard Police Chief Jean Loveland.
Approximately 90 seconds after help arrived, Ostler gave birth to a 9.9-pound boy on the shoulder of I-15 just past the Willard exit.
The roadside birth started Saturday night when Ostler, 32, of Mantua, whose due date was in two days, drove her 6-year-old son to her mother’s house in North Ogden to play with his cousins.
Along the way, she started having contractions.
Ostler said when she got to her mother’s house she tried to determine if she was really going into labor. When the contractions didn’t stop, she got in her car and started driving to the hospital.
“I was hoping that I would make it. But then my water broke and I called dispatch because once my water breaks … there’s the baby. There’s no time once that happens,” she said.
“I was in the fast lane. I was trying to get over to the slow lane so I could pull over to the side, but cars wouldn’t let me over. It doesn’t matter if you have your blinker on or not,” she joked.
Patrol trooper Josh Carr and Willard Police Chief Jean raced to the side of the road where Ostler’s car was parked.
By the time they reached her, she was dilated to a 10 and couldn’t move.
Carr and Loveland had just enough time to put on rubber gloves and get a sterile sheet under Ostler so the baby could be born on something clean when she delivered.
“He came right out in my hands,” Carr said. “It was very emotional. Probably next to my own children’s’ birth, it was a very satisfying moment in my career.”
“It was quite the learning experience and I’m glad I had that opportunity,” Loveland said.
Wow! What do YOU think about this brave mom taking matters (literally) into her own hands????ShutterStock
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