Aili Hermann gave birth to her second daughter less than three hours after contractions started. Here's how her delivery unfolded, plus how she remained calm through it all.
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Transcript:
I remember asking my husband, like, Are we going to make it? We’re driving across the bridge into Manhattan, and I'm getting like kind of worried that I'm going to give birth in the Lyft car at this point. I know there's stories about people giving birth in cars, but... was not in my birth plan.
With my first labor and delivery, I actually ended up pushing for a total of three and a half hours. Going into the second pregnancy, my doctor, my OB kept saying, I think you're going to have a fast second labor. You need to get to the hospital early.
What ended up happening is I went into labor naturally on my due date. That time, I woke up at around like six in the morning and I felt like tightness and pressure like in my stomach. I started timing them and I noticed that there was a pattern. They were coming together like stronger and closer together. I was like, I think we need to go to the hospital.
We decided to wake up my daughter. Okay, like, you know, it's time for Mommy to have the baby. I was reading her a book while I was having contractions. I finished reading the book to my daughter. My husband has called the Lyft car at this point. And the contractions were coming very close together.
We end up driving up to the hospital. Someone is asking me like, What are you here for? Like, do you have an appointment? And I'm like, I'm in labor. It was very clear that I was like, imminently going to have a baby.
Like, everyone on the floor, it seemed like, rushed over and they were like, okay, this is happening. This lady is going to have a baby immediately. From my perspective, it just seemed like all these nurses, doctors, I don't even know, all these people, just like rush in.
And they checked me and they're like, She's ready to push. I was like, oh my God. And, you know, I felt, I felt a lot of fear and anxiety. And I, I was like asking nurses, I was like, am I going to be okay? They're like, You're going to be just fine, like, don't worry.
Because it was just happening so fast, like, I couldn't even mentally process that I was like reading a book to my older daughter and I was about to push out my other child.
So they said, okay, like it's time to push, push your baby out. And one push and she was out.
I was in shock and I was still screaming. And the doctor was like, She's here. You can stop screaming now. I was like, Oh. Okay. And I just turned to my husband and was like, What just happened? I just gave birth? Our baby is here already? And he was like, Yeah, yeah.
She was so cute. Just like her older sister. I remember her hat had a little bow on it, which I thought was really cute.
To any pregnant people or fellow moms, you are all superheroes. And I know this is a cliche, but you're just doing an incredible, incredible job. Just remember your confidence and your strength and try to seek out communities and people in your life that are going to uplift you and support you during this time.