‘We didn’t make it’: Mom delivers baby in the car while dad drives to hospital

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A Berkeley County native has quite the story to share with family and friends here in the Lowcountry.

She didn’t make it to the hospital in time and gave birth to her son in the car.

Amanda E. Myles grew up in Cross in Berkeley County. She and her husband Giovanni live in Houston. They already had two sons, Liam 9, and Sebastian, 3, and were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their third child. Amanda was working with a midwife this time around. The midwife told her that about 12 hours after her water broke, she would be ready for delivery.

At 37 weeks, Amanda’s water broke the morning of Aug. 12. She decided she would labor at home, and started putting the last few items in her suitcase.

“I text my midwife, I let my family know what’s going on and talked with them for a little bit, and my husband’s sitting next to me. My three-year-old, he knows something’s up, he comes, he won’t leave my side,” Amanda said.

The contractions were slow and sporadic at first.

“They were six, seven, three, then six minutes apart, so they weren’t really coming consistently,” Amanda said.

Then late afternoon, the contractions are coming very consistently and Giovanni decides, it’s time to head to the hospital. When they hit the road, it’s 5 p.m. on a Friday. Traffic is thick and the normally 20-minute ride to the hospital is taking longer.

“I just wanted to get her to the hospital. My number one priority was to get us to the hospital,” Giovanni said.

“And we’re driving, we’re driving, and they (contractions) just keep coming. Back to back, back to back. And I’m bracing against the pain,” Amanda said.

In the passenger seat, Amanda is doing her best to hang on.

“And so I could feel him just moving, making his way down with every single contraction. And all of a sudden my screams went from really high pitched, to super low guttural and I couldn’t even recognize myself.”

That change in tone was for good reason. Amanda said during one contraction, instead of bracing against the pain, she just let go and let her body do whatever it wanted to do.

“As soon as we got to the freeway, 249, and he’s merging on, I could feel the ring of fire that everyone talks about. And I just let out one scream and I braced myself. I pushed myself halfway into the back seat of the car to get myself in a comfortable position, and I was in some sort of semi-lunge in the front seat, and I felt his head just kind go poop.”

“Baby came out, I kind of glanced over, and I was like OMG, I could see his head on the passenger seat and all I could do is get us there,” Giovanni said.

“He’s (Giovanni) still saying five more minutes, and I remember saying no he’s here and I gave one more scream and out he came. And I was wearing a dress and so I was able to lift him out of my dress. So I started rubbing his back and trying to get him to cry or whimper or something, and then all of a sudden he just gave out this small little cry and I knew we were okay. We were right at the U-turn for the hospital when he came out,” Amanda said.

“Baby came out, she made sure she got him to cry out so that we knew he was okay. That was for me the biggest sigh of relief. From there, we made it to the hospital pretty quickly, and I was l like, ‘all I needed was five minutes babe,’” Giovanni said.

“And at the hospital, everyone’s congratulating me like, ‘Dad you did such a great job,’ and I’m like, I just drove the car. My wife delivered on her own, I had nothing to do with it’” Giovanni said.

At the end of an eventful ride to the hospital on a Friday afternoon, little Magnus Diem Myles weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz.

In case you’re wondering, Magnus Diem, is Latin for “Great Day.” Mom and dad say that is exactly what it was.

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