Motherhood: When you cant quite make it to the hospital

Alexis Barker
NLJ Reporter
 
For Tessa Boggs-Arp, it was a childbirth of nightmares that turned into one of the most peaceful experiences of her life. Throughout both her pregnancies, Arp admitted, she was terrified of not making it to the hospital in time due to living in a rural area. As a result, just having a baby was a real fear. 
For her entire second pregnancy, Arp said, she was frightened, although she had already gone through a birth in 2009, when her daughter Rosalina was born. This time, though, it was a snowy and cold March morning in 2016 and Arp was preparing for the birth of her second child. She had already experienced false contractions (called Braxton Hicks contractions, these are considered normal and simply prepare the woman’s body for the actual delivery.)
“A week before Arayah was born, I had false contractions, went to Rapid City and was sent back home. The night before, on the 25th, things were just fine and normal. We went to go to sleep and I felt a little off, so I hopped in the bath,” Arp said. “When I got out of the bath, that is when the contractions hit, but I thought they were false contractions again because they felt the same as before.”
Arp told her husband, Quinten, that it might be time for their second daughter’s arrival and they began timing contractions. 
“They were nothing like what is required to be admitted to the hospital,” Arp said. “They were like five minutes apart and then seven. They were all over the place.”
But then things took a turn for the unexpected, and Arp said she knew it was time. She quickly put on her snow boots and headed for the car. 
“We got into the car. It was cold and snowy, I think it was a blizzard; it was horrible,” Arp said. Throughout the drive through the Black Hills, Quinten wanted to turn back, but she pushed him ahead. 
The couple and Rosalina made it to Hill City when the unthinkable happened – her water broke. 
“We were hitting snowdrifts on the road; they hadn’t plowed or anything. We were passing cars in ditches, and my anxiety was over the roof,” Arp said. 
But that was all about to change. 
Arp realized that there was no way her family was going to make it to the hospital before the baby’s arrival, and she told Quinten that it was time to pull over. 
“We pulled over to the Reno Gulch Storage Units. Quinten jumped out, grabbed a blanket out of the back and came around to my side just in time for me to feel her head,” Arp recalled. “As he opened the door and got the blanket down, Arayah came out, on March 26 at 2:58 a.m.” 
Despite her anxiety and fear as they pushed through snowdrifts on the road, Arp admitted that all of the stress left the moment she knew she had to deliver her daughter in the car on the side of the road in a snowstorm. 
“My husband, he was the one really freaked out. He didn’t know what to do,” Arp said. “He kept asking if he should call the doctor, and I told him, ‘No, call the ambulance.’” 
Arp recalled that she even had to tell her husband to calm down and breathe while she helped Arayah take her first breath. 
“She wasn’t breathing when I delivered her. She almost looked purple. I was not necessarily loopy, but I was in a daze when I looked at her, and I said to my husband, ‘She is not breathing,’” Arp said. “Then, I blew in her face. I remember my grandma telling me that when kids are crying and not breathing, you blow in their face and sure enough Arayah took a breath and started crying.” 
Rosalina was able to capture this moment on camera, according to Arp. The 7-year-old snapped the picture and sent it to grandma, letting her know of Arayah’s interesting arrival. 
“It was really a beautiful family moment, it really was. At the time, it was intense but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Arp said. 
After about 15 minutes, the ambulance arrived and the EMTs looked amazed at the sight. Arp and Arayah were then loaded onto a stretcher, still connected by the umbilical cord, and taken to the hospital, where they were both pronounced healthy. 
“We were both perfectly healthy. Arayah did have some bruising on her face from coming out so quickly and because of the angle I was at in the car,” Arp said. 
“I was scared to death, even though I had already had a baby. I was scared to do it again, but God had it happen this way to say, ‘Tessa, you can do this, this is what you are capable of.’ I was so scared but I did it,” Arp said. “It was not at all how I imagined it, but truthfully, I was more at peace in that moment than I was in the hospital with doctors surrounding me. Mother’s instincts kicked in, and I knew what I needed to do.”