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Seventeen-year-old, Barely Made It to Hospital

By Erin

I had been dating Mark for over a year when I found out I was pregnant. I was so shocked; I never thought it would happen to me. Mark was 100 percent with me, but my parents were another story. They told me that they didn't want anything to do with me or my baby. I moved in with Mark (19), who had his own apartment.

I was due June 15. The pregnancy went well, except for some sickness in the beginning. On June 8, one week before I was due, I started having some contractions in the morning. I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks, because they didn't really hurt. I just went on with my day.

At about 3 p.m., the contractions started hurting more. I was in pain, but it wasn't unbearable. I decided to call Mark, who was at work. He was about 45 minutes away. He told me he would come home right away. I figured that since this was my first baby, it would be a while until the baby would actually come. Boy, was I wrong.

While I was waiting for Mark to get home, my contractions got worse. They started getting closer together and more intense. I called him again and told him to hurry, but the pain cut me off. He told me to breathe, and try to relax. I stayed on the phone with him until he got home, at a little before 4. I walked around in between the contractions, and got on my hands and knees during them.

When Mark got home, my contractions were about two minutes apart, lasting a minute. I was in so much pain! I knew it would hurt, but I had no idea! When Mark came in, I was on the floor in the middle of a horrible contraction. When he helped me up to get in the car, my water broke. Luckily we only live five minutes away from the hospital!

I had three more contractions in the car, and waited there as Mark ran in the Emergency Room. I was having the strongest urges to push. It became too much and I started to push anyway, alone in the car.

Mark and a doctor came back with a stretcher. The doctor checked me, and I was fully dilated and he could see the head. They lifted me onto the stretcher and raced back into the hospital. They were telling me not to push, but I couldn't help it.

They got me to a room, and with a few more pushes, Jeremiah Landon was born at 4:28 p.m.

Mark and I are still together, and Miah is a beautiful 15-month-old. While I wish that I could have been older when we had our baby, I couldn't have asked for a better son or boyfriend.