It was mere minutes between the moment Heather Lettow went into labor and then gave birth to her daughter, Hope, in the kitchen of her rural home.
“It was not supposed to happen that way!” Heather explains.
Heather wasn’t due for another two weeks, but she woke up around 4 a.m. with contractions. She told her husband, David, that she felt like she was going into labor and that they had to leave for the hospital right away.
However, she only got as far as her front door.
Heather stepped outside and felt her body bear down. So, she went back inside and into the kitchen, where she told her husband to call 911. Though David delivers one to two calves per week on his farm, nothing could have prepared him for this.
“She was standing in the kitchen with her mom helping her, and the head was already out,” David recalls.
Two pushes later, and his healthy new baby girl was born into the world (though he briefly thought his daughter was actually a ‘he’ as you’ll see in the video).
The 911 dispatcher guided the family through delivery and gave them instructions on what to do until emergency responders arrived. David had the honor of cutting the cord about 10 minutes later, when they did.
It was a situation no parent ever imagines themselves being in, but thankfully, Heather and David were able to see it through safely and deliver their baby.