Emily Pitchford’s two children both made unique grand entrances. Her son was born in his amniotic sac, and her daughter was born at the front door of their house …
CRANBOURNE woman Emily Pitchford, 21 always wanted to be a mother but never imagined how her children would arrive.
She was very excited when she and her husband Dillon fell pregnant with their first child in 2011. Despite having bad morning sickness for the first 14 weeks, the pregnancy went relatively smoothly. She grew impatient when the due date of 3 July, 2012, came and went, but was looking forward to being induced on 19 July.
But on 18 July, Emily started getting cramps.
As the contractions progressed, she and Dillon drove to Monash Hospital in Clayton and arrived just before 6pm, when the midwives on day and evening shift were beginning to change shifts.
“The midwives were waiting until changeover to check me, but no-one was worried because my contractions weren’t close together. They were still about five to 10 minutes apart,” she said.
“It wasn’t until I told them that I felt like I needed to go to the toilet that the midwives checked and realised the baby was crowning.”
There was no time to break Emily’s waters. She pushed about three times and her little boy, Roman, was born, still in the amniotic sac.
“I remember one of the midwives said it was the first time ever she had seen a baby born in its sac,” Emily said.
“I regret that we never got any photos of it because I didn’t realise how rare it was.”
This year, Emily gave birth to her daughter Quora in another unusual circumstance.
“She was due on 14 July, but from 36 weeks she sat very low and on my pelvic bone which was quite painful, so I was hoping she would come early,” Emily said.
“At 1am on 12 July I started to feel a funny feeling in my tummy and at 4am I started having contractions. We rang Casey Hospital at 6am and said we would probably arrive in an hour.”
But as Emily and Dillon started leaving the house, and just as Emily’s brother-in-law got Roman into his car, the labour progressed significantly.
“As I got to the doorway I laid down on the floor and said we weren’t going anywehere. I knew the baby was coming.”
Emily’s brother-in-law called the ambulance then handed the phone to Dillon and took Roman into the kitchen. As soon as the paramedics arrived, about 7.20am, Quora was born.
“My waters never broke with her either, but the paramedic broke her sac when she was half way out.”
Emily and Quora were taken to Casey Hospital, but was discharged later that day, at Emily’s request.
She said life with her two-year-old boy and four-month-old girl was very busy, but she was loving every moment.
