Dr Emily Jacobs’ water broke at the same moment that she delivered her patient’s baby.
The 28-year-old University of Iowa Hopsitals and Clinics obstetrics and gynecology resident was only 36 weeks pregnant and didn’t expect to deliver so soon.
But in the middle of her night shift on July 28, Dr Jacobs went into labor in a patient delivery room.
‘Right when the baby came out, I felt myself get drenched,’ she says.
She didn’t even realize that she was about to give birth until she changed her scrubs.
She had to quickly switch modes, from doctor to patient, amid shock and concern for her baby.
Dr Emily Jacobs (center) went into labor with her first child, Jett (right), while delivering another woman’s baby. She and her husband, Ryan (pictured) had moved to Iowa, where Dr Jacobs began her residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics only 28 days before she gave birth
Dr Jacobs moved to Iowa City, Iowa with her husband, Ryan, to begin her residency at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics on July 1, 2017. By the time she started work there, she was already well into the third trimester of her pregnancy.
‘As far as I know, I’m the only intern that’s done that,’ she says.
Women at the beginning of their medical careers and planning their families often ‘try to do night school or wait until later in residency when you feel you have the hang of things,’ she adds, ‘but he was kind of a surprise.’
The ambitious mother-to-be didn’t slow down, spending 80-hour weeks – including night shifts – on her feet, in spite of her growing belly.
She was due on August 24, so Dr Jacobs thought she’d have plenty of time to settle into her new, busy work schedule.
But three weeks and countless baby-deliveries into her residency, she had to start yet another new job: motherhood.
Dr Emily Jacobs shows off her stethoscope on the day she graduated from medical school at the University of University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in May of 2017, just two months before she gave birth to her first child, Jett
Around 4am on July 28 – during ‘a normal, crazy night shift’ – Dr Jacobs was called into a delivery room where a patient was already in the late stages of her labor.
Dr Jacobs had been doing back-to-to back deliveries, this being either her second or third (there were a lot of things to remember that day), and she probably hadn’t sat down for a couple of hours.
The patient was already crowning, about to deliver, when she walked in.
As the baby was born, Dr Jacobs thought nothing of being suddenly soaked, assuming the fluids had come from the delivering patient.
Jett Eric Jacobs was born a month early, while his mother was at work delivering babies as a medical resident. Like many babies born pre-term, he received special care just after birth to address his blood pressure and jaundice
‘It happens literally all the time in [obstetrics],’ she says.
A few minutes later, as she was changing her scrubs, Dr Jacobs realized that what she’d felt was actually her own water bursting.
Everyone suddenly had to switch roles. Dr Jacobs went from doctor to patient, her teacher and ‘and technically, boss,’ Dr Abbey Merryman had to switch to being her advising physician, and Dr Jacobs’s classmate and friend Dr Keely Ulmer, had to deliver her baby.
The adage goes that ‘doctors make the worst patients.’
Dr Jacobs says that she had a hard time keeping her training at bay, her mind racing with all the possible complications of a delivery, especially one coming a month early.
Her first thought was her baby, wanting to ‘make sure everything was okay with him.’ Her next thought was work.
‘There was only me and one other resident on the night team that night, and a full board of patients!’ she says
Dr Jacobs (right) was already 26 weeks pregnant when she went to her medical school graduation from University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio with her husband, Ryan (pictured) in May
Dr Jacobs was 36 weeks into her pregnancy when her water broke. Ideally, babies are born after 39-40 weeks of gestation.
Dr Jacobs took to being a mother naturally, and was immediately thinking of the worst case scenarios, and thanks (or no thanks) to her training as a doctor, she knew what they were.
Generally, deliveries that take place between weeks 32 and 37 of pregnancy don’t have any major complications, though doctors watch these newborns for minor issues like feeding problems.
Fortunately, Dr Jacobs had an uncomplicated labor.
Healthy and mighty: Jett Jacobs at one month. Jett was born early and had low blood pressure and jaundice, but quickly recovered and is now a happy, healthy child
The hours between when her water broke and when she delivered that afternoon left plenty of time for both sets of grandparents to get from Texas to Iowa.
At 3pm on July 28, Dr Jacobs, Ryan and all four new grandparents welcomed Jett Eric Jacobs, six lbs and two oz., into the world, delivered by Dr Jacobs’s co-intern, Dr Ulmer.
Like many babies delivered pre-term, Jett had some minor blood pressure problems and jaundice, but went home a happy, healthy baby.
Ryan, 28, is a teacher and coach, but has taken the year off from work to take care of Jett so Emily can continue her residency.
Last week, after just eight weeks of maternity leave, Dr Jacobs came back to the hospital on the other side of things, working her full rotation at the hospital, and delivering babies left and right.
‘It’s kind of surreal now, delivering babies after already having had one,’ she says.
‘I get flashbacks of what the contractions feel like. But, especially when people come in in pre-term labor, I feel like I just do a better job because I know exactly what it’s like to be in their positions,’ Dr Jacobs says.