Grandparents Help Maple Grove Native with Surprise Home Birth

In a scene more befitting of a Hollywood movie, a young couple found themselves thrust into an extraordinary birthing experience.

Maple Grove native Kara “Groves” Burquest attended Maranatha Christian Academy in Brooklyn Park, where she met and later married fellow 2013 graduate Carter Burquest. The couple would celebrate the arrival of their first child, a son named Briggs, in 2022.

Fast forward to this year, when Kara, pregnant with their second child, began experiencing contractions at 39 weeks. The couple checked into Maple Grove Hospital where they fully expected to have another baby.

But the hospital had other plans.

“They want you to be at a four and to have contractions five minutes apart for an hour,” Kara said. “I was just under a four — at like a 3.5 — and my contractions were about six minutes apart.”

Carter recounted what hospital staff told them: “We don’t think we can take you, we don’t think you’re quite ready yet, wait until your water breaks.”

So the couple returned home, accompanied by Kara’s parents, Mike and Kristy Groves of Maple Grove, who were looking after Briggs.

It wasn’t long before Kara’s contractions got stronger and she suddenly found herself in the throes of labor.

Desperate for guidance, Carter dialed 911 while gathering blankets and towels.

Meanwhile, Kristy, along with her husband Mike, assumed the role of midwife.

“She’s pushing and cannot stop,” Kristy said. “So, on one push the baby’s head is crowned and the water breaks, and on the next push, that baby came rushing out into our hands.”

A few minutes later, emergency services arrived to find mother and baby girl safe and healthy.

The scene inside the Burquest’s living room shortly after first repsonders arrived.

Their new daughter — named Briar Sun Burquest — weighed a healthy 7 pounds, 13 ounces. She is named after her paternal grandmother, Sunday Burquest, a former contestant on the hit CBS television show, Survivor.

Sunday passed away in 2021 after a hard fought battle with cancer.

“It was very fitting how everything went about because I don’t think we would have been able to script a more fun birth for my mom, that’s for sure,” said Carter.

For Briar’s maternal grandmother Kristy, the birth was nothing short of profound.

“In that moment that Briar was born, it was just one of the most beautiful experiences that you can imagine,” she said.

As for Kara, the unexpected home birth served as a reminder of life’s unpredictability.

“I always said I wanted a home birth and I got it,” she said. “The Lord answers prayers in super funny ways.”

The Burquest family at Maple Grove Hospital.

Maple Grove