No petrol. No phone reception. So she had to give birth in the bush.

The woman who gave birth deep in the woods. In the middle of a swarm of bees.

Amber Pangborn was heavily pregnant and driving to her parent’s house on Wednesday night when she found herself lost in a local forest.

It was far from an ideal situation that quickly became downright scary when the 35-year-old Californian woman began experiencing contractions.

Realised she was out of petrol and had no mobile reception, Ms Pangborn had no hope of getting to a hospital in time.

So there in her car at 5am on Thursday, stranded on a gravel path in Nevada’s Plumas National Forest that the she did what she had to do.

She gave birth.

“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 KNVN.

Fortunately she safely birthed her daughter Marissa — but their ordeal was far from over.

Related: At 24 weeks pregnant and on a “babymoon” when she went into labour.

Without petrol, and with a swarm of bees surrounding them, Mr Pangborn faced difficulty leaving the car — and had only four apples and some soda water on which to survive.

“The meat bees came out and were trying to get the placenta,” she said. “I was trying to protect her from getting stung and I got stung trying to keep them away from the baby but they kept going back to the placenta.”

After three days in the wilderness, Ms Pangborn devised a clever but risky plan to attract attention: She started a signal fire using a lighter and a can of hair spray.

“The fire just went whooff, and the whole side of the mountain just caught on fire,’ she said. ‘And I was just looking at Marissa… and I was like, ‘I think Mommy just started a forest fire, honey’.”

The fire attention attracted a fire helicopter, which discovered the pair hours later and sent a rescue team from the Forestry Department.

It’s a story that so easily could have ended in tragedy — with Ms Pangborn telling KNTV that at one point she ‘thought they were going to die’ — but instead, it resulted in a healthy birth and an unbelievable tale of survival.

We wish Ms Pangborn and Marissa all the best.

Also read: The tea that’s making women pregnant.

Do you have a story to share? Email news@mamamia.com.au

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