Woman delivers baby on bathroom floor of Evansville home
Print
EVANSVILLE—Kayla Kaiser knew the delivery of her third child would be quick.
She didn't expect her mom, Brenda, to help deliver her son on the bathroom floor of her Evansville home last week.
The story little Ryder Lee will hear countless times over his life started the morning of March 9, when Kayla left her Stoughton home for her mother's house in Evansville.
Kayla woke her mom up because she was having contractions, but at two weeks before her due date, she figured it was false labor.
But mom knows best.
“This is her third one, I knew how fast she went” (with her first two), Brenda said. “So I was immediately awake.”
With contractions about 10 minutes apart, the pair prepared a house full of kids to head to a Madison hospital.
As Brenda grabbed her coat, she heard Kayla from the bathroom, “Mom, I have to push.”
Kayla turned to lean against the wall and her water broke. Brenda called 911.
As the dispatcher asked if she could feel the baby, “the head popped out,” Brenda said.
That was at 10:15 a.m.
“Just get it out,” Kayla recalled thinking. “I don't care where it is, get it out and make sure it's OK.”
Evansville Police Sgt. Patrick Reese had just arrived from a few blocks away, expecting they'd be waiting for an ambulance.
“I didn't expect a baby to be born right here on the linoleum,” he said.
At the same time, a hold-up alarm came in from a Milton bank, tying up first responders' radio traffic. Reese tried to get through on the radio to let the EMTs en route know the baby was on his way.
Brenda said was glad to see Evansville EMT Karla Gay arrive because Gay knew the family and had delivered two of her own babies at home. Between Brenda, Kayla and Gay, the women already had 11 children, so childbirth was nothing new.
But Brenda said she still wasn't prepared for this experience. She tag-teamed with Karla to deliver the rest of the baby's body.
Everything happened within five to 10 minutes, Brenda said.
“When they said it was fast, it was fast,” Reese said.
At 8 pounds and 20.75 inches, Ryder checked out healthy, along with his mom.
“It was like a well-oiled machine,” Reese said. “It was just really nice to hear him cry.”
Kayla's boyfriend, Jake Vayding, thought she and her mother were kidding when they called him at work to share the news.
“Nobody believes that,” Brenda said.
A team of Madison paramedics had time to arrive while Kayla completed the delivery. Brenda rode with her daughter and new grandson in the ambulance to the hospital.
“Grandma (Brenda) was the superhero,” Reese said. “She did awesome.”
So did Kayla's sister, Gina Kaiser, who helped keep Kayla calm and took care of the rest of the kids.
Given her personal home-birth experience, Gay was able to reassure Kayla during the labor. By all accounts, Kayla remained calm and collected.
“It's not very easy to deliver a baby in a tiny bathroom on a hard floor. There wasn't much room,” said Gay.
“It's something all the EMTs want to be able to do,” she said. “That's like the frosting on the cake.”
Brenda said she's glad the delivery happened at home before they left for the hospital.
“We would have been on the side of the road delivering,” she said. “Then I would have been a total basket case.”