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This Video Of A Woman Giving Birth In A Moving Car Will Have You Screaming, Just Like She Was
As if giving birth wasn't already intense enough, mother-of-five Alexis Swinney's most recent labor experience reached truly unbelievable new heights. Not only did she deliver her baby from a car, and not only was the car moving, and not only was her husband driving, but her husband was also filming her give birth in the moving car. And if you think that's the height of this story's wildness, oh boy, you are in for a shock.
Last week, Alexis and Dominique Swinney shared a video of Alexis giving birth to their baby daughter, Corbyn Hope, on Instagram, as CafeMom reported. In the clip, Alexis is crouched in the car's front seat, facing backwards, with her underwear around her ankles, and you better believe she is SCREAMING. "Can you wait like two minutes?" Dominique asked Alexis through her shrieks. "What do I do?!" she yelled. "I don't know if she can breathe! I don't know what's happening!"
Suddenly, Alexis' screams stopped, and her baby's screams began. "She had the baby. Oh my gosh, oh my goodness," Dominique told the camera as Alexis clutched her newborn. "We just delivered a baby in the car. Oh my god." And in case you forgot, Domonique was driving and filming while his wife gave birth. She literally gave birth all by herself in a moving vehicle. (But wait, there's more.)
The video went viral, and the family of seven appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! via video call this week to share more about the experience. Kimmel started the segment by sharing bonus footage from Alexis giving birth — and the end had the audience hysterically laughing. The video continues on where Alexis' Instagram video ended, picking up with Dominique panning the camera to the backseat of the car, to slowly reveal not one, not two, but THREE of their children, silently chilling in their car seats as if nothing happened at all.
This wild tale began last Wednesday, when Alexis woke up in labor, she explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The couple and a few of their kids went to see her midwife to check on Alexis' symptoms, and her midwife determined that she was 7 centimeters dilated. So, the whole family got in the car for the 12-15 minute ride to the hospital. However, circa minute 8, Alexis could tell the baby could not wait until they got to the hospital. Within a few minutes, their baby had arrived.
Alexis explained the unusual position she was sitting in to Kimmel. "The midwife actually put me into the car that way. She was like, 'Lean the seat backs down, that will be the most comfortable,'" Alexis recalled. "And I did not argue, because ... it probably was the most comfortable way I could have delivered that baby."
Kimmel also made sure to ask Dominique the very question you're probably wondering right now. "Why were you videotaping?!" Kimmel asked the proud papa. "The whole time I'm watching, I'm thinking, put the camera down and drive the car!" Alexis took responsibility for that one. "Y'all can blame me. I asked him ... in case she's born in the car, take a video," she said with a laugh.
Even though giving birth with all of those wild circumstances is not in most people's birth plans, Alexis wouldn't change the experience for anything. She captioned the birth video on Instagram with a beautiful ode to childbirth, writing:
I just experienced something unrivaled to anything I could have imagined. I witnessed my body take over and a baby be born into my hands. My body is not swollen, and I have no tears. I had my husband and children around me, and for 5 minutes, we embraced everything that happened without any interruption.
And on top of actually enjoying that outrageous experience, the Swinney family received a pretty awesome gift from Jimmy Kimmel. "We were concerned that maybe things might not be clean in the car anymore," Kimmel joked, before presenting the family with a new minivan. As Kimmel put it, they deserved a car without that "new baby smell."
Whew, talk about a wild ride!
You can keep up with the Swinney family's adventures on their Instagram, @swinneyseven.