READING, MASS. (WHDH) - Two Reading police officers and a dispatcher were beaming at the Reading Police Department Tuesday after the trio helped bring a new baby into the world Monday morning on the side of the road.
The baby’s father frantically called police to report that his wife was giving birth as he rushed her to the hospital, and dispatcher Brad Mickle said he told him to pull over.
“He said that he was driving, and possibly that they weren’t going to make it to the hospital,” Mickle said.
Officer Lorrin Taliaferro and officer Paul Peoples responded to the call, and found the couple in their car on Haverhill Street just outside of Camp Curtis Guild.
“At that time she started going into active labor. The head had came out and I cleaned its face so it could start to take its first breath,” Peoples said.
Taliaferro said she arrived just as the mother said she was going to push again.
“She just said that she had to push, and she just pushed once and the baby just came out,” Taliaferro said. “And then we just made sure that the baby started to cry and mom was good, and everyone was good.”
The mother and new baby girl were then rushed to Winchester Hospital where police reported that both are doing well.
“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing that happened, I didn’t go into work that night thinking that we were going to be delivering a child on the side of the road. It was definitely terrifying but also really exciting,” Taliaferro said.
“To see the call actually go all the way through like this was definitely once-in-a-lifetime type of call that I’ll always remember,” Peoples said.
Peoples said this was the mother’s third child, and she was born a few days past her original due date.
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