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HOME DELIVERY

Caryn Keller recently had an adventure that few expectant mothers have – she delivered her own baby.

Both Keller, 20, of Loyalsock Township, and the baby are doing well after the unexpected Jan. 25 birth.

Isaiah is at The Birthplace of Williamsport Regional Medical Center where health care professionals are seeing to his basic needs.

Keller was babysitting when the unexpected birth happened.

A few hours earlier, about 3 a.m., Keller began having contractions. She said she called a hospital when the contractions continued.

“They started getting worse, which is why I called. I waited them out until about 5 a.m.,” she recalled.

Keller was instructed to drink water and, if the contractions continued, to call back.

In the meantime, she went to her babysitting job just up the street from her home. Not long after she arrived there, the contractions came closer together.

“When I went to the bathroom, my water broke,” she said.

That’s when she knew her baby might be coming.

She wondered if she still had time to get the children she was babysitting back to her mother’s home.

“I stood up. His head was already coming out,” she recalled. “I caught the baby. He was crying.”

She returned to her home with the baby and the two children she was babysitting.

“My mom called 911 once I got there,” she said.

The umbilical cord was cut while Keller was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Keller said enduring the painful contractions probably was the hardest part of the birth.

“For that I was in tears,” she said.

Keller said she didn’t have to force the baby out, that the birth itself was relatively easy.

“Someone asked me how many times I pushed. There was no pushing at all,” she said. “I don’t know if it was shock or what. But I didn’t feel anything. The thing that hurt the most was the contractions.”

During her pregnancy, Keller had problems gaining weight, and the baby was born two months premature.

He reportedly is doing fine. However, at 3 pounds and 11 ounces, he remains small.

On Thursday, Keller said doctors expect Isaiah to grow stronger and be released from the Level II nursery of The Birthplace in a couple of weeks.

“Our specially trained Level II medical staff with board-certified pediatricians and nurses do an outstanding job caring for these babies,” said Patsy Miller, director of Mother/Baby/Child at Susquehanna Health.

“Our Level II nursery opened in 2006 as a two-bed unit. We expanded to seven beds in 2010 and, in June 2012 upon our move, grew to a five-bed Level II to care for babies 32 weeks and older,” Miller added. “We are fortunate to have it within this region so mothers and babies don’t have to travel far from home and babies can thrive.”

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