A metro Atlanta couple -- a paramedic and an EMT -- is breathing a sigh of relief after they had to deliver their own baby in the back of an ambulance.
Everyone is OK, but the new mom told Channel 2’s Diana Davis she was terrified.
Four-day-old Owen Stephens made such a dramatic entrance into the world.
“I woke up to some pretty painful contractions,” Tinsley Stephens said.
It was 4 a.m. Sunday. The baby, her second, wasn't due for another week. With her paramedic husband at work, she started to drive all of the way from Acworth to Northside Hospital herself. A few minutes down the road, she knew she wouldn’t make it.
Tinsley pulled into husband’s ambulance station and off they went.
Tinsley and her husband, Danny, were in back and an EMT was up front driving the ambulance . But the baby wouldn’t wait.
“My water broke about two minutes down the road,” Tinsley said.
The drive to Northside was about 45 minutes and when they were on the top end perimeter, the couple knew they wouldn’t make it to the E.R.
“I pushed and his head came out,” Tinsely said.
Tinsley said the baby was blue and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck.
As her husband got out the scalpel to cut the cord that was choking the baby, he handed Tinsley a clamp to stop the bleeding. In pain, Tinsley went to work on herself with her husband.
“So we got that (the cord) from around his neck and then a couple more pushes and he was out,” Danny said.
“It was pretty scary. I was terrified. My husband kind of went into professional mode and took care of business,” Tinsley said.
The couple finally made it to the E.R.
“And we pull open the back doors and they say, 'Oh, you have a baby' and we said, ‘Yep, we do,’" Tinsley said.
Tinsley said it was at that moment her husband went from professional paramedic to proud, happy and relieved new father.
“He said, ‘I cant believe that just happened,’“ Tinsley said.
The hospital kept Tinsley and the baby an extra night just to make sure everybody is doing just fine. Owen weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds, 7 ounces.
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