Thu Feb 09 2012
by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Sagamore Hills -- Babies are born in their own good time.
That became evident early Sept. 3 when three members of the Northfield Center/Sagamore Hills Fire District delivered a baby girl in an ambulance at the side of Sagamore Road.
"Both mother and baby are doing fine," said Deputy Fire Chief Frank Risko said later that morning.
The mother, 37-year-old Augusta Lane resident Julie Raftery, said later in the day that she and her daughter, Sophia Faith Raftery, were still at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights, but everything was going well.
"I just want to say [the firefighters] definitely did a good job," she said. "They kept me calm and were calm themselves."
Raftery said that at about 4 a.m., she and her husband Joe decided it was time for her to go to the hospital because her contractions were five or six minutes apart.
They waited about 30 minutes for her parents to arrive to stay with the couple's other four daughters, ages 2 to 10, when her water broke. With her contractions only two minutes apart, her husband called for an ambulance.
Risko said paramedics arrived a short time later and found Raftery was in labor lying on a living room couch.
"This was her fifth child so she was a veteran," said Risko.
Fire Lt. Bill Millard was driving the ambulance while paramedics Andrew Miller and James Ryba were in the back with Raftery.
Millard said he had just turned off Walton Road onto Sagamore Road when he had to pull over as Raftery began giving birth.
"Jim pretty much said 'The baby is coming out,'" said Millard.
Millard said the delivery happened quickly, estimating that it was no more than two minutes between the time he stopped and the time Sophia was born.
He said the paramedics then rubbed Sophia to stimulate her before cutting the umbilical cord.
"Probably after about a minute, the baby began to cry and that's when you know the baby's breathing normally," he said.
Raftery said the experience "was a little surreal."
"It just happened so fast."
Risko said Joe Raftery had been following the ambulance in his vehicle and was present for the delivery.
Risko said he believes the last time department firefighters delivered a baby was about nine years ago.
"It was a very good run, a run we're proud of," he said.
Millard said that although he, Miller, and Ryba had all been trained to deliver babies, this was the first time any of them had actually done so.
"It was a very rewarding and gratifying call," he said.
Raftery said she was surprised when she learned later that this was their first delivery.
"I would never have guessed it," she said. "They were so professional."
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169
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