Every expecting mom has a plan for the way she wants to give birth. But as every mom also knows, even the best laid plans don’t always go our way. One new mom in Maine, is sharing the story of her unexpected labor and delivery in the parking lot of the high school where she teaches.
Her birth became a community event when the staff at the school stepped in to help deliver her baby girl. Then she was in for yet another surprise when her father, who is a firefighter, was one of the first responders who showed up! Her little one certainly has quite a birth story to tell one day.
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The expecting mom went to work like any other day.
Tori Hildreth, who teaches at Old Town High School, showed up to work on Tuesday, October 8. Even though Hildreth’s pregnancy was considered “full-term,” she was feeling confident that she wasn’t going to give birth just yet. In a Facebook post about Hildreth’s surprise birth, Old Town High School called her a “dedicated professional” who arrived at work for a “normal workday.”
She had no idea what kind of turn her day would take.
According to an article from the Bangor Daily News, Hildreth had been experiencing contractions that were “inconsistent and more than an hour apart.” She had been advised to go to the hospital when her water broke. Since it hadn’t, she went about her day. But her contractions started to pick up to the point where even her students noticed.
“They said, âYou should go home and rest. Youâre going to have a baby soon.â” she told the outlet. “And I was like, âYeah, Iâm gonna have her tomorrow.â”
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Her baby wasn't waiting until the next day.
As the school day drew to a close, Hildreth’s contractions were coming regularly enough that she called her mother, who works nearby, to come meet her. The school’s nurse, Jana Caron, and the school’s resource officer, Willy King, were called to the scene to help out.
“The plan was to go to the hospital, but I stopped in the car and I said, âHold on, I just need to make it through this one contraction before I can actually sit down,’” Hildreth told the Bangor Daily News. It was that contraction that pushed her daughter, Bella Reese Dieuveuil, “out into the world.“
Suddenly, it turned into a family affair.
“EMS had been called earlier and upon arrival, Tori’s father, Mike Hildreth was driving the firetruck,” the school’s Facebook post reads. Hildreth went to the hospital where her husband Mark Dieuveuil and the couple’s older daughter Dianne met her.
“Everything happened pretty quickly,” Hildreth told BDN. “At around 2:05, I sent my students over to the library, and by 2:18 I was in the parking lot holding my baby.“
She will never forget this delivery.
The school called Bella’s birth an “imperfectly perfect moment,” adding that it “brought smiles and happy tears to all who were in the vicinity.” Their Facebook post also shared that this was the first time anyone has ever given birth on school grounds, while giving Caron and King praise for delivering their “first, maybe only baby.”
“If my calculations are correct, Baby Bella will be OTHS, Class of 2042,” the post reads. “Bella, we will be waiting for you!”
“I am thankful that my daughters are growing up in a community where people give that love and support,” Hildreth told local CBS news affiliate WABI.
