Woman gives birth alone in the wilderness after getting lost
Amber Pangborn was stranded in a forest when she ran out of petrol – then her contractions started
A woman gave birth in the wilderness – completely alone – and survived with her newborn for 3 days before being rescued.
Amber Panborn, 35, was on her way to visit her parents in Nevada when she ran out of petrol in the Plumas National Forest. With no phone reception and heavily pregnant, Amber was isolated and scared. And then her contractions started…
With no one to help, Amber bravely gave birth completely alone in the back seat of her car.
"I laid out a sleeping bag in the back seat, lied down, gripped the handle above the back window and gave birth to my daughter," she told local news station KNVN.
After the birth, Amber decided not to cut her daughter Marissa's umbilical cord for fear the tiny baby wouldn't have enough to eat. But this posed it's own problems – when she started to get attacked by meat bees and mosquitos. "I was just thinking 'Oh my gosh,'" she said. "I wasn’t sure we were actually going to get out of there."
"The meat bees came out and were trying to get the placenta," she said. "I was trying to protect (my daughter) from getting stung and I got stung trying to keep them away from the baby but they kept going back to the placenta."
Mother and baby survived on one small bottle of water, a fizzy drink and 4 apples for 3 days. Then, Amber was able to raise the alarm by starting a signal fire with a lighter and aerosol can – the forest blaze attracted a fire helicopter and as Amber realised they were about to be rescued, she broke down in tears. "I was just crying, I thought we were going to die," she said. "I was also just so glad that someone had seen us and we were going to be okay."
Amber's dad said his daughter was "heroic" throughtout the ordeal. "I was so relieved," he told CBS. "I felt my prayers had been answered. I truly believe I witnessed a modern-day miracle. I know babies are born every day and to hear such a heroic story, being all by herself for three days, it was almost unbelievable."
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