Jessica Mallais’ perfect birth plan for her first child did not include going into labour on her Highlands driveway.
But that’s exactly where the 20-year-old’s daughter was born, with only her mom and dad there to help.
The new mom’s due date was May 11, but on April 23 around 12:30 p.m., her water broke. She called her midwife who told her she would check back in around 6 p.m. and see how she was doing.
Things were fine for the first hour – Mallais chatted with some friends over video and did a little bit of shopping. But by 3 p.m. she was in serious pain.
She found her dad and told him she needed to go to the hospital.
“I was walking out the front door and I decided, ‘OK, we’re going to the hospital this hurts too much to be normal labour, I can’t take it, I need the drugs now.'”
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Around 3:20 p.m., as she was walking out the door, Mallais’s mother returned home, pulling up onto their driveway.
“I ran out of the house, went down the stairs. I was holding a towel, and then I couldn’t walk any further, I couldn’t make it to the car,” she said. “I threw the towel down and put out my hand and yelled, ‘Mom grab the baby!’
“I was standing so she just kind of slid out,” Mallais said. “I think an adrenaline rush just came over me.”
Grandma caught the baby and wrapped her in a blanket.
Paramedics arrived shortly after, followed by the midwife, who cut the cord. Mallais had a healthy baby girl weighing seven pounds and two ounces. She named her Everly Jordyn.
“Originally I wanted to have my baby at home,” she said. “I wanted my mom to rub my back and make me tea and we would breathe together. I wanted the midwife to be there and not show up hours later.
“I felt like a farm animal,” she added with a chuckle. “I really felt like I was some kind of a cow. I’ve been watching Dr. Pol for days ’cause I relate to those cows in labour. I was a cow. I mooed.”
The driveway birth was “not part of the birth plan,” Mallais said. But she is now enjoying time with her brand new baby girl.
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