Lawrence Police Officers, EMTs Help Deliver Baby Girl

Because of the nature of the jobs they do, police officers and medical personnel so often find themselves surrounded by tragedy and having to deal with horrible, traumatic situations.

Death, in one form or another, is something that cops and emergency medical technicians face more times than they’d care to remember.

That’s why today (March 30) was so very special. Today, instead of seeing a life end, a group of Lawrence Township police officers and EMTs teamed up to welcome a new life into the world.

And not only did they witness the birth, they took an active role in helping it happen.

Some five hours after they assisted 26-year-old Christina Paul as she delivered her new daughter in a home on Alcazar Avenue, smiles this afternoon were still evident on the faces of township police Detective Dave Burns, Sgt. Tim Drew, and Officers Ron Buchanan and Chris Schuster, and Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service Chief Christine Vincent and EMTs Stephanie Evans and DeLorfette “Dee” Clark.

“It was a good experience, a nice positive thing to be able to do,” Drew said modestly, as the other officers stood nearby and nodded their heads in agreement. “Certainly a career highlight.”

Lt. Charles Edgar, a township police spokesman, said it was 9:42 a.m. when a 911 call was received from the Alcazar Avenue residence, in the township’s Eldridge Park neighborhood, reporting a woman was in labor.

Knowing that Evans and Clark – the township’s on-duty ambulance crew – were going to be delayed because they were already in the process of delivering a patient from another incident, several police officers immediately headed that way.

Burns, who has been on the police force for 18 years, arrived at the home in just minutes to find the expectant mother on the second-floor. The woman’s contractions were about three minutes apart at that time, he said.

Paul, in week 39 of her pregnancy, told the officers she started having contractions a couple hours earlier and that they progressed faster than she had anticipated.

Drew, a 12-year veteran of the police department, then arrived and helped Burns escort the woman down to the living room on the first floor, where they made her comfortable on the floor. With contractions by then about two minutes apart, it was clear that “delivery was imminent and the baby was going to be born in the house,” Burns said.

“We started coaching her to take deep breathes, relax,” Burns recalled.

Buchanan and Schuster – who have been on the police force for 17 and three years, respectively – then arrived and took up positions on either side of Paul to continue coaching her through the birth.

Burns and Drew, joined by Vincent, prepared themselves to deliver the baby, who by then had started to “crown.”

Although none of the police officers had ever delivered a baby before while on the job, they told Paul that they were all parents and assured her that collectively had “lots of experience” with births – Burns has two daughters; Drew a son; Buchanan four daughters; and Schuster two sons and a daughter.

Evans and Clark arrived to assist as the girl – Paul’s second child – was born in the house at 10:11 a.m.

Mother and newborn – whose name was not immediately available – were then transported by ambulance to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, where they were both reportedly doing well this afternoon.

The newborn’s father was said to be flying home today from a trip to the Dominican Republic.

Drew made a point to credit the 911 operators from township police and Life Comm – which handles emergency medical calls in Mercer County – for their professionalism and the “fantastic job they did giving us instructions and helping us over the telephone.”

While there have been a number of instances in recent years where township police officers and EMTs arrived at a home just after a child was born, it has apparently been some time since a township officer or EMT actually helped deliver a baby. Veterans of the township police department and emergency medical service said they couldn’t remember exactly how long it has been, but estimated that it last happened in the early 1990s.

The delivery of the baby girl left members of the police department in such a positive mood that they couldn't help but give Burns some good-natured ribbing about the striped pink shirt he chose to wear to work in the detective bureau today. "If only I'd known this morning - what a coincidence," he remarked.

“It’s certainly not every day this happens,” Edgar said. “Most of the time police are called to people’s houses because something bad has happened. To be able to be present, to help with the birth of a child, I’m sure was very rewarding for these officers.”