Difficulties giving birth What would you do

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I was talking to a friend this morning and was reminded of our old mare,the mother of our 4 and 6 year old qh boys.Baby died last fall after an illness.We didn't own her anymore.We had given her to a friend that has hundreds of acres of grazing land and one old horse for Baby to be friends with.Baby had suffered abuse prior to us owning her .After the difficuly birth of Golden she never did well so we thought her best chance was to be out to pasture.. She did live three years of luxery and doing what she loved to do, graze on nice lush green pastures.Here's a story about her. .. Our black Quarter Horse mare King Leos Baby Glo had given us a a beautiful boy so we decided to breed her again, this time to a palamino qh hoping for palamino or buckskin. The time went by and Baby was about 2 weeks over. She had waxed days earlier and her teats were so full that she squirted milk with every step. She had done the same with the foal 2 years ago so I didn't worry. It was April 25,2003 and we were off to a grandchild's birthday party. I realized that I had forgotten my extra battery for my digital so told my daughter I'd be right back and headed home to retrieve it. I ran in the house to get the battery, stuck it in my pocket and headed for the car. I was almost in when I thought I'd just check the mare quickly before going back to the party. She was on her side moaning.She had not acted like this with her last foal. I walked around behind her and was shocked to see what looked like 2 club-hooves inside the sack. I grabbed the flashlight(stall was away on the shady side of the barn)to get a better look and realized the foal had it's knees foaled and the kneecaps were what I had mistaken for the hooves. My brain hit overdrive trying to remember all the birth stories I'd heard and all I'd been present and helped with. I couldn't think of any folded knees stories. I had to do something fast because the mare was in trouble. I could take the time to go to the house and grab a phone and maybe loose mare or foal or both or I could try to help. I took a deep breath, hoping someone would stop by to at least give me moral support, I waited until the contraction was over, then gently pushed the knees back in. I didn't want to break the sack at this point because I still didn't know what was going to happen or how long it would take. I waited the next contraction out then quickly pushed the foal back in again and tried to direct one leg to unfold. Then I had to back off until the contraction eased. This went on through a number of contractions. I got one leg straight and she was pushing so hard but the other leg was not coming. When that contraction eased I got in there and straighted the leg not worrying about the sac anymore. Too much time was going by. I was still calm but just barely. I got the second leg straightened out but it didn't look right. When she started contracting I pulled the legs for all I was worth steady pulling but something was wrong. They were out to the knee and wouldn't budge any farther. I reached in and felt along the check up to the head and nearly paniced when I couldn't seem to find the head. I realize this sounds weird but this baby had his head tipped up with his nose aiming upward and was just stuck. It took me most of the time between the contraction to figure it out. When the next contraction eased I went in with both arms. I got a hold of the nose and pulled it down toward the legs that I had pushed back in. At this point I thought the foal was a lost cause and I was going to get it out and try to save my mare. Once the nose was down I grabbed the rags again, put them around the pasterns and when she contracted I pulled for all I was worth and he came out with a plop. I cleared the sack away from his head and to my amazement he started moving. Mom was up and starting to clean her boy. I sat down in the straw and cried my eyes out. It took about 3 hours to get him up and moving. He had a very bent left leg but the vet said that mom and baby were a-OK but would most likely be dead if I had not trusted my gut reaction and just did what I did. I still feel my blood presure rising when I think about it. I never, I repeat I never want to go through anything like that alone again.