Mom Has Smart Idea After Nearly Giving Birth at Stoplight
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Jessica Kober learned that firsthand when her unborn second child kicked the mother’s labor into high gear while she and her husband, Ryan Kober, were driving to the hospital.
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Two “massive contractions” showed the Sammamish, Wash., mom that she didn’t have time to make it from the family’s home to Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, where she’d planned to give birth on Wednesday, she told KOMO News. The contractions were so painful, Jessica admitted, “[I] hit the roof in the car.” (Yahoo Parenting was unable to reach the Kobers for comment.)
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The couple also hit lots of red lights on the way, which frustratingly foiled their rush. “We hit the red light at Starbucks, we hit the red light at Skyline, we hit the next red light,” recalled Jessica, who yelled to Ryan to call 911. “I was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this baby is coming now!’”
Eastside Fire and Rescue Station 83 in Issaquah, Wash. (Photo: Google)
But before the firefighters at the nearby Eastside Fire and Rescue were able to head out in response to the 11:29 a.m. call, Jessica had the genius idea to go to them. “She knew she didn’t have time to make it to the hospital,” Lt. Ryan Anderson tells Yahoo Parenting of the couple who arrived at 11:31 a.m. at the station, located a mere 5 miles from the medical facility. “It was that motherly instinct.”
The firefighters had just finished working out when they heard “banging on the door,” Anderson says. “And as soon as we raised the bay door we could see immediately that the mom was in pain. She had these big eyes.” The dad, meanwhile, was “very excited,” Anderson adds. “He was nervous and stressed too, like, ‘Help my wife.’”
Jessica Kober and daughter Melody. (Photo: KOMO News)
And it’s no wonder why: At this point, Jessica told KOMO News, “I could feel her head. I knew she was coming.” And the baby did, just four minutes after Jessica arrived at the station and lay down on a stretcher. “Three pushes and this baby was out,” Jessica said of the infant they named Melody Grace, born still in her amniotic sac. Anderson tells Yahoo Parenting, “Everyone is telling us that that’s a sign of good luck!”
Photo: KOMO News
Not that the firefighters needed luck that day. Anderson says the team trains for births, though he admits, “It’s not on an everyday basis that we get a situation like this. I’ve been working here 11 years and this is just my second time delivering a baby on duty.” Luckily, though, he says he helped his own wife deliver their third child in the hospital just 11 months ago. “So it wasn’t too distant a memory for me.”
For that, Jessica will be forever grateful. “If the fire department hadn’t been there,” she said, “my husband would have delivered her on the side of the road.”
(Top photo: Facebook/Eastside Fire Fighters)
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