Vermont Couple Brave Storm To Reach Hospital
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Meg Staloff had expected to give birth to her second child on Aug. 18, according to her doctor's calculations.
But it was not until about 11 o'clock Sunday, when Hurricane Irene was roaring through the Northeast, that Staloff, 38, started feeling contractions.
"I was supposed to go to Brattleboro (Vt.) Memorial Hospital, but all the roads were closed," she said on Monday. So, she and her husband started making plans to go somewhere else for medical attention. They drove to the elementary school in Dover, believing emergency personnel there would be able to help them make the best decision. Then after trying to figure something out, they went home.
"We have very good neighbors and one is a nurse. They encouraged us not to stay home. We had no power and no telephone. The nurse came up with an idea: See if we could get a helicopter to take us to Brattleboro. But it was too windy for a helicopter to go up."
Still searching for a solution to their problem, the couple called emergency responders. "They knew of a clinic in Wilmington, where there were a couple of doctors and National Guard to handle emergency cases, said Staloff. At the clinic, a doctor checked Staloff and contacted her private physician who thought she should definitely get to a hospital.
With Vermont experiencing its most devastating floods in decades, the options open to them were riding in a National Guard vehicle over a logging road to Greenfield, or driving to North Adams Regional Hospital, which under normal circumstances is about a hour from Wilmington. It was growing dark and since someone had driven between Wilmington and North Adams, they felt it would be best to go to North Adams.
The expectant parents arrived at North Adams Regional Hospital with the help of Deerfield Valley (Vt.) Rescue at 12 hours after the contractions started.
"The nurses, the doctors, everyone has been great," said Staloff. "They understood my situation, and even though they do not take a pregnant woman at this stage of labor, they said. 'Welcome, come on in.'"
In all, it had taken Staloff more than 11 hours to get to a hospital. "It was a little stressful," she said.
The doctors did not want to induce labor, Staloff said, as her first child was delivered by Caesarean section.
"We miss our daughter. She's only 2 and her grandmother is taking care of her back home in East Dover. We can't call her because there is no phone service because of the hurricane," Staloff said.
Monday morning, Staloff faced yet another decision as she prepared to leave North Adams. Should she and her husband stay near that hospital or if roads are passable should they go to Brattleboro?
"The nurses at North Adams Regional Hospital are so nice," said Staloff. "This morning they said, 'We have all your records now, so you can come back here when you're ready.'"
With a calm not indicative of her predicament, Staloff said, "We'll bide our time. We may have the baby here or in Brattleboro. Just going to wait and see."
The Staloffs spent the day in North Adams and finally made it back home by 8:30 that night. On Tuesday, the contractions started again but this time the couple was able to get to waterlogged Brattleboro.
Madeline Jane Staloff was born Wednesday at 2:46 a.m. at Brattleboro hospital, weighing in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 19 inches long.
"Ultimately, we were lucky to be able to get back here and have the natural birth we wanted with our team in the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, but also know that the staff at NARH would have been great should we had to have stayed there," Meg Staloff emailed us Wednesday afternoon. "We are very grateful for their care and understanding given the circumstances and know we would have gotten great care there, too."
Tags: Irene,
