It was the day before Amber Arnold’s scheduled Cesarean delivery. Her baby was in breech position. And he was ready to be born. Now.
Amber and her husband got into their truck and headed up Route 1, toward South County Hospital. Where her care team was waiting. Thanks to everyone whose generosity supports South County Health’s expert care, Amber’s story had a happy ending – in the form of a bright new beginning.
Amber’s family is out-of-state. Her husband, Jehu, sometimes works hours away as a commercial diver. She knew it would be important to give birth close to their Westerly home. She could not have known how very right her selection of South County Hospital would turn out to be. This pregnancy had already challenged Amber and Jehu to embrace the unexpected.
Four years earlier, before the family moved to Rhode Island, Amber had delivered her daughter, Geneva, via natural childbirth. She was shocked when Dr. Megin Dalton, her obstetrician at South County Hospital’s Center for Women’s Health, told her that her second baby was in breech position – likely requiring a Cesarean delivery.
Dr. Dalton performed an external cephalic version procedure, to try to turn the baby and make it possible for Amber to deliver naturally. But the baby would not turn.
A Cesarean was scheduled for Monday, May 16. The baby had other plans.
Amber awoke on Sunday with pain and cramps. She and Jehu got on the road.
Every minute – and every mile – counted.
Forty-five minutes later, Amber was in surgery. Three days later, she and Jehu took their son, Wyldr, home.
“Everyone – the nurses, the anesthesiologist, and Dr. Lisa Rameaka, who performed the Cesarean – was so calm,” Amber remembers. “I was worried about having a baby this way, but they made me feel so comfortable and so confident that all would be well. And it was.”
