Baby Delivered on Freeway (KTLA-TV / May 13, 2009) |
LOS ANGELES -- A highway patrol officer helped deliver a baby girl on the 10 Freeway near downtown L.A..
CHP Officer DeShawn Cobbs says he and his partner were providing traffic control for Caltrans on the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway, just east of Alameda Street, around 11:25 p.m. Tuesday when a woman drove her car into the maintenance enclosure.
She shouted that her sister was in labor and needed help, Cobbs said.
Cobbs looked in the backseat and noticed a pregnant woman who was screaming out in pain.
When she turned in Cobbs' direction, he could see that the baby's head was crowning.
"I knew at that point, the baby was coming," Cobbs said.
"She gave one good push and the head came out, and after another push the baby, a girl, came through. After we cleaned her face off, and sucked all the fluids out of her mouth and nose, she began crying and kicking her legs, and we wrapped her up in blankets," Cobbs said.
The baby was delivered in about two minutes.
Paramedics took the mother, who was about 25-years-old, and the newborn to the hospital. Both appeared to be doing well.
Cobbs said he was nervous but he had been trained for situations like this.
"That's why we take this job because there's always something different."
Cobbs said he was in the delivery room for the births of his two sons, but having to actually deliver the baby yourself, he added, is much different.
CHP Officer DeShawn Cobbs says he and his partner were providing traffic control for Caltrans on the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway, just east of Alameda Street, around 11:25 p.m. Tuesday when a woman drove her car into the maintenance enclosure.
She shouted that her sister was in labor and needed help, Cobbs said.
Cobbs looked in the backseat and noticed a pregnant woman who was screaming out in pain.
When she turned in Cobbs' direction, he could see that the baby's head was crowning.
"I knew at that point, the baby was coming," Cobbs said.
"She gave one good push and the head came out, and after another push the baby, a girl, came through. After we cleaned her face off, and sucked all the fluids out of her mouth and nose, she began crying and kicking her legs, and we wrapped her up in blankets," Cobbs said.
The baby was delivered in about two minutes.
Paramedics took the mother, who was about 25-years-old, and the newborn to the hospital. Both appeared to be doing well.
Cobbs said he was nervous but he had been trained for situations like this.
"That's why we take this job because there's always something different."
Cobbs said he was in the delivery room for the births of his two sons, but having to actually deliver the baby yourself, he added, is much different.
