BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – It’s not every day you drive through a hurricane to give birth, but that’s what this Melbourne mom had to do Wednesday morning as Ian barreled across the Florida peninsula.
Hanna-Kay Williams, her fiancé and her mother braved fierce winds and rain on Brevard County roads after she started having contractions Tuesday, a day before Ian made landfall in the state.
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“I don’t even remember driving through the storms because I was in my own mental hurricane,” Williams said in a news release.
They parents-to-be arrived at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne around 2 a.m. Wednesday before Williams had to endure more than 20 hours of labor and an emergency C-section due to the fact that she wasn’t fully dilated and the baby started going into distress.
The new mom eventually delivered a healthy baby girl, Wajiha, at 10:11 p.m. that night. Wajiha, whose name means glorious and beautiful woman, weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and measured at 20 inches.
“We came out on top, we definitely did,” Williams said in a news release. “I felt when she first (arrived) and they sat her on my lap, the first thing I said was, ‘That’s a big baby,’ and then I looked at her and thought, ‘That’s my twin,’ even though I already have a fraternal twin.”
Both Williams and her baby girl are doing fine thanks to the family’s enduring faith and the welcoming nursing staff, she said.
“Oh my goodness, I would give everyone a gold star especially my nurse, Melissa, and my primary care physician Dr. Christina Jackson,” Williams said in the release. “They made me feel like everything was going to be fine even through the hardest parts. They gave me so much love and care, and for someone who works in the medical field, I know how important that is for patients.”
This comes after Ian left as much as 14 inches of rain across Brevard County and lashed the area with high-speed winds.
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