Special roadside delivery

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2009 (6250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KRISTA McDaniel thought she might have a quick labour, but giving birth in the family van on the side of Trans-Canada Highway, in full view of her three wide-eyed children, wasn’t what she had in mind.

And her husband Phillip McDaniel certainly didn’t think he’d be the one to help their son Cruz enter the world, a birth that happened so quickly emergency crews didn’t get to the scene until it was already over.

“We’re just so thankful,” said Krista. “My husband stayed very calm, even though I knew he wasn’t.”

The McDaniels were on the way to the St. Boniface Hospital close to 3 a.m. Friday along with their seven-year-old son Hunter and daughters Kaia and Tavia, five and two, when Krista realized their fourth child wasn’t going to wait any longer.

“I told my husband, you have to pull over, because I have to push,” said Krista. “He said, okay, that’s not what I wanted to hear.”

Phillip pulled over on Highway No. 1 near Plessis Road and called 911, wary of traffic whizzing by in the darkness and trying to keep their frightened children calm.

“They were pretty much in shock,” said Krista. “They were very quiet, which we’re thankful for.”

Three contractions later, and she knew it was time. “You’re going to have to catch it,” she told Phillip, who dropped the phone in time to scoop up Cruz as he emerged, already crying.

“For me, that was the first point of relief, just to hear the baby cry,” said Phillip, who works as a safety advisor for the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.

Their son Hunter helped find a blanket and Phillip tied a shoelace around the baby’s umbilical cord. Soon Krista, reclining in the passenger seat, held her new son for the first time.

Just over 20 minutes had passed since they left their home in Lorette, and 11 minutes since they’d pulled over on the highway. It was another minute or two before the paramedics arrived, shocked to see the baby in Krista’s arms.

“It was by the hand of God that everything worked out and that we’re home safe now,” said Phillip.

The McDaniels had high praise for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and the 911 dispatcher who helped them through the roadside birth: “We don’t even know who he is, but he was obviously someone who kept us calm and helped us out,” said Krista.

And they had as much praise for each other. “I really consider my wife as almost a superwoman in my eyes, and the kids were the little sidekicks,” said Phillip.

At the hospital, “every nurse wanted to peek in and had something to say, (and) asked if my husband’s going to change his profession,” laughed Krista.

Krista was home by Saturday with their healthy eight-pound, 11-ounce baby boy, Cruz — a name Phillip said was more apt than they had realized.

“Little did we know it was going to be a shotgun birth, and cruising down the highway,” he said. “The name was picked before, but it seems to be very fitting for him.”

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca