Police officer helps deliver his own baby in parking lot

A Rockford, Illinois, police officer helped deliver his own baby in a parking lot on Sunday, the Rockford Register Star reported.

Rockford Police Officer James Nachampassack was in the midst of a shift when he got a call from his girlfriend, Phenh Thammavong, around 5 a.m.

“She said nonchalantly, ‘I think I’m going to give birth today,’” he told the Register Star. Thammavong was two weeks short of her Sept. 17 due date.

Nachampassack said his sergeant picked him up drove him to headquarters so he could get his personal vehicle. He drove home quickly and heard Thammavong screaming before he even opened their door.

“I thought I was going to walk in and see a baby dangling by the umbilical cord,” he said. “Thankfully, it wasn’t like that. She was just kind of hanging out at the table, and I said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I saw the water underneath her, and she said, ‘I think I’m going into labor right now.’”

Nachampassack and Thammavong got in the car to go to the hospital, but they didn’t make it. While they were still en route, Nachampassack said, “She looks over at me and says, ‘This is happening now.’”

Nachampassack pulled into a hotel parking lot and used his police radio to call for an ambulance. He got out of the car and went to the passenger side.

“I put my hands out to catch him, and as soon as I did that, she did all the work, and pushed him right on out,” he said.

Holding the baby still attached to the umbilical cord, Nachampassack said he tried to “keep the baby warm.” Then he heard sirens.

“I’m like, 'Thank God. The EMTs, fire is here,” he said.

But the sirens actually belonged to his coworkers.

“It’s five or six police cars,” he said. “It’s everybody I work with. I mean I was happy they were there, but I was really hoping for the EMTs. They were great though. They just kind of walked me through everything. Told me I was doing good. They were like, ‘What can we do for you?’”

The police officers found some blankets for the baby, and an ambulance arrived shortly after.

“I don’t think anything could have prepared me for this,” Thammavong said of the experience.

The Register Star reported that mother and baby are both doing well after the dramatic birth. The baby, a boy they named Leo, weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces. The couple also has a 2-year-old son, Wyatt.

Nachampassack, who is also an Army reservist, said he was never trained to deliver a baby.

“I stayed as calm as I could, but I don’t ever want to listen to the dispatch [recording] because I’m sure I was a wreck,” he said.