by Lillian Gahagan, for the Journal Opinion

FAIRLEE—As many parents know, even the best-laid plans go awry.  

And so, last week, one local couple had to improvise when the birth of their second child arrived while they were en route to the hospital.  

In a phone interview, Nate Ellsworth of Bradford described how the events unfolded.  

On the morning of June 4, his wife Joy had labored for a few hours at home. 

They left Bradford a few minutes after 7 a.m. to travel to Gifford Medical Center in Randolph where their midwife intended to join them to assist in the birth. 

Before going to the hospital, they first dropped off their 2-year-old daughter Claire with family. 

“My wife is very strong-minded and strong-willed, and she wanted it to be a normal day for Claire,” Nate recounted. “But we may have waited a little too long.”

They then headed south. It was hardly the first time they had traveled the route. 

Nate said they had made test runs, which normally took one hour and six minutes to travel from Bradford to Randolph. But this summer, I-91 South between Bradford and Fairlee is closed as the state oversees a project to prevent future rockslides at the Palisades. Southbound traffic instead detours onto Route 5. 

As they drove on Route 5 to Fairlee before 7:30 a.m., there was peak morning commuter traffic and plenty of other roadwork going on. 

As they approached Fairlee village, Joy informed Nate the birth was imminent.

“You don’t want to disagree with your wife when she’s in labor, and she tells you, ‘It’s happening’ and ‘Pull over we’re doing this now,’” Nate said. “There’s no time to worry.”

Nate pulled the truck off the road and into the driveway of Gray’s Auction. He dialed 911 and talked to the dispatcher about what was going on. Because of the urgency of the situation, Nate remained on the line with the dispatcher. 

“It was pure adrenaline,” Nate said. He started taking stuff out of the truck and spread out the blankets and linens he had brought along on the seat. 

There was a moment of angst because the baby had a bluish tinge when he first emerged. Nate and Joy were momentarily terrified. 

“I was nervous because of our first birth experience,” Nate said. “Luckily, this was much less complicated.” 

In their daughter’s birth, Joy was 10 days overdue, the birth was difficult and resulted in a five-day hospitalization. This time around, the baby was born on his actual due date.

Nate said the dispatcher was relaying information from someone else to help in the unusual circumstances.

“He said, blue is OK, blue is good,” Nate explained. “Then he — the baby — started to cry and we knew that was a good sign.”

“Dispatch was wonderful,” Nate remembered. “It only ended up being about 7 minutes. We all rejoiced together. It was very emotional. We were all crying.”

By then Ellen Putnam, a first responder with Upper Valley Ambulance, had arrived. After checking the baby, her focus shifted to Joy, Nate said. But everything was fine and the baby was already nursing.

Incredibly, the family continued on their own to Gifford to be evaluated. Mother and child had “amazing bonding at birth,” Nate said. 

He cut the umbilical cord once they were at the hospital. Some of the usual details got lost in the shuffle as Nate knew his son weighed 7 pounds but couldn’t remember if anyone ever told him how long he was. 

“We threw a curveball into the usual procedure. The midwife was waiting for us when we got there and said they already had gotten word that we had the baby,” Nate said. “She actually cleaned out my truck since she didn’t have to do the birth and asked me if I wanted to be a midwife since I had done such a good job.”

They spent the day at the hospital and went back home around 5 p.m., just like they had planned. 

Because they had been in such a public place with so much traffic going by, word quickly spread about the roadside delivery. Nate reported that they received many texts and calls of congratulations, and lots of jokes about the truck.

“We were in the zone while it was going on and so we didn’t realize how many people went by,” Nate said. “Everybody knew what was happening.” 

Now that the baby — Nathan Ellsworth II — is almost a week old, Nate said they all are doing well, and baby Nate is not fussy at all despite having such an unconventional birth experience. 

And this family will have a good story to tell about how Nathan II made his entrance.