Showing up at the WRONG house for a homebirth
This is embarrassing to admit, and it was not my finest moment. Especially being it was the middle of the night. But, I once knocked on the front door at the WRONG house after being called to come to a homebirth.
Listen, I know what you’re thinking. “Mikayla, don’t you have your clients addresses prior to their birth?” And yes, yes I do. However, when I have not been to their home prior, it takes a bit sometimes to find the correct number. Now you’re probably thinking “Okay, well don’t you check the house numbers before knocking?” And of course. Of course I do. The thing is, when it is pitch black out in the middle of the night, those house numbers can be hard to spot and harder to read.
Anyway, let’s get into how exactly this happened. I had a homebirth client who was very eager to meet their 2nd baby. She had been having prodromal labor for weeks and was so ready for active labor to come, but when it did was definitely in denial it was the real deal at first. She had been letting me know of her contractions per usual and thought nothing of them, and neither did I at first. Until, that night she was loosing her mucus plug. In my mind I thought, well, better check up on my babysitter and make sure everyone is ready to go because I will likely get called tonight. I checked my ringer on my phone probably 25 times before going to bed that night, and I am glad I did! Sure enough, I got a call about 2AM from client. She said she thought it was time but was nervous I would come for nothing, but she was pretty sure it was labor now. I let her know I would get my childcare over and be on my way. I jumped up, got ready, and waited for my childcare to arrive. When they did, I headed on my way to make it to client’s birth.
Client lived about an hour away from me, and I am definitely glad she called me when she did, because things started progressing fast. When I arrived, I flew out of the car and up to the house with the mailbox that I thought I read the correct numbers on. I knocked a few times on the door and waited, impatiently. I noticed there was a Ring camera and waited a moment before looking to the side of the door at the house number. It was the wrong house. I actually had knocked on her neighbors door, in the middle of the night, wearing a black hoodie, dark pants, and wearing a backpack. I can not imagine how suspicious I looked on their camera!
I quickly ran over to the right house and double checked the numbers before knocking. I ended up letting myself in after confirming it was the correct house and capturing client’s birth of her second baby as if nothing happened. I later did let her know about it and that I was sorry to her neighbors, and we laughed about it a bit. Can you imagine if I had just let myself in at the WRONG house?!
So, that’s the story of how I went to the wrong house, in the middle of the night, when called to a homebirth. Lesson learned, always double and TRIPLE check the house numbers!
