NYC, LA mothers gives birth to girls while on the way to the hospital
(CBS News) Babies on opposite sides of the country who couldn't wait to be born shocked their respective parents by being born -- right on the streets.
A 37-year-old Los Angeles mother was being driven by her husband to the hospital on the 5 south freeway when her baby decided it was time, CBS station KCAL in Los Angeles reported. Lydia, a healthy 8-pound baby, was born just outside the Beach Boulevard off-ramp in Buena Park.
Her father kept calm throughout the situation and pulled the minivan over when he noticed his wife's was starting to push. He called 911, and the operator talked him through the birth until Paramedic Scott Schultz and three others from Fire Station 62 were able to arrive, seconds after the baby girl was born. Lydia is the couple's third child.
"We found the mom in the right front seat with the baby between her legs in her hands. The umbilical cord was still there. Then we clamped the cord and cut the cord," Schultz said. He added that the baby is doing great, was pink and had a good, strong cry.
"Driver gets out and he's panicking, 'Call 911. Lady in the backseat broke her water,'" newsstand owner Sal Medina said to CBS station WCBS in New York.
The unidentified woman, who was from Queens, was on her way to the hospital in a cab with her aunt when the babies decided they couldn't wait. A bystander called 911 once he realized what was going on.
However, by the time two ambulances arrived on scene, one of the girls had already been born.
"She was crying a little bit, but she was pretty calm," emergency responder Tiege Dolly told WCBS. "In fact, when we arrived on scene everyone was pretty calm."
They moved the new mother into the ambulance just in case the second baby decided to make its way into the world and transferred her to Bellevue Hospital. Although she made it to the hospital, the second baby couldn't wait either: The mother gave birth on the way to labor and delivery.
Bellevue Hospital said that the mother and her babies are doing well.
