‘When I saw feet, my heart just sank:’ Parents recall their breech baby’s frantic roadside birth
Updated Apr 28, 2021;
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – An urgent situation suddenly turned frantic for the parents of a newborn.
At one point, the couple was urgently trying to get to the hospital to have their baby. The next moment, they needed to have their baby along that freeway.
The scariest part: The baby was being born breech.
“When I saw feet, my heart just sank,” the father said.
Hannah Pluchinsky and her husband, Kaleb, were traveling on I-96 at 2:30 a.m. to have their baby at Metro Health hospital on April 1.
Grand Rapid Couple Delivers Baby On Side Of I-96 - Grand Rapids, MI - Hannah Pluchinsky was 35 weeks pregnant when she had to deliver her daughter via a breech birth on the side of a highway.
When baby is born early and breech on freeway, dad makes right moves
Updated 10:54 AM;
Today 10:03 AM
Newborn Sophia Pluchinsky, born on the shoulder of I-96, is pictured at Mercy Health St. Mary s Hospital in Grand Rapids (Photo provided by Hannah Pluchinsky)
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Her confidence quickly disappeared when her water broke in their car traveling on I-96.
Hannah told Kaleb to pull over along the freeway, west of Plainfield Avenue, at 2:30 a.m. April 1.
“Ten to 15 seconds after her water broke, the baby was coming,” Kaleb Pluchinsky said.
It was six weeks before the expected birth date.
The young father doesn’t recall all the details of what happened next, except for running around to the passenger side and seeing the baby’s feet already emerging. However, by the end of those frantic moments, the couple had a new passenger inside the car with them.