Unexpected arrival: Northwest Firefighters deliver baby in an ambulance

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A newborn baby girl is settling in with her family, coming off a pretty wild entrance into the world. She was born in the back on an ambulance, right into the hands of Northwest Fire District firefighters and paramedics.

Her arrival started out like any other 911 call. There was a woman in labor who needed help getting to the hospital. The crew who showed up at her house did a quick run through and assessment, and they thought they had time to get to the hospital, so they hit the road.

"I would say five minutes later, her contractions started to intensify and we could see the baby was coming, so we pulled over the ambulance," Brad Palmer explained. He's a firefighter and paramedic at Northwest Fire, and was essentially supervising the ambulance ride that day, overseeing Sam Martinez, who has only been a firefighter for a few months, and Peter Bath, who has been a firefighter for a few years, but only just became a paramedic a few weeks ago.

It was good timing though, because Bath became the first person to hold the newborn baby girl in his hands.

"We caught with this blanket here," Bath showed us. "So we had everything set up and ready to go, and once the baby came out, we caught and then immediately warmed, dried and stimulated her to get the baby to breathe. We wrapped her up and gave her to mom."

Bath even cut the baby's umbilical chord, just like he did for his own two daughterz when they were born. But for Martinez, the firefighter, being around babies was somewhat new. He says this was the first time he ever held a newborn.

In the chaos of an unexpected moment like this, the crew really relied on what they knew.

"It started out a little hectic," Bath said. "But we just had to remember our training. We're trained very well to deal with situations like this. So as long as we revert back to our training, remember what we're taught to it turns out well."

Despite the training though, it was still a far cry from what they're used to.

"Being in emergency services, a lot of people call us whenever they're having the worst day of their life," Martinez explained. "So being able to be there for somebody on the best day of their life, was really a change. It was awesome."

It's also not very often that firefighters or paramedics get any kind of follow up with the people they help, which is why Claire Graham was so excited to share with them that she had been talking with the baby girl's family, who says she's doing well. They didn't want to be on camera, but they did send Claire some pictures of the newborn with her aunts, which Bath, Martinez, Palmer and the rest of their crew were very excited to see.

Now, coming off such an unusual experience, the team that pulled off the delivery gets to wear a special badge of honor. When a firefighter or paramedic delivers a baby, they earn a pin of a stork - either blue or pink - to wear on their uniform. Bath, Martinez and Palmer all say they'll be proud to wear their pink pins, every day.