Special Delivery: Mother Delivers Son On I-79 While Heading To Hospital
Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter
WAYNESBURG (KDKA) – A woman will have quite the story to tell her newborn son someday.
Sarah Blake, 27, went into labor Friday morning. However, the child did not want to wait until she got to the hospital.
"I started getting contractions about 6 o'clock," Sarah said.
Sarah says she didn't think much of it because she had them the day before and the hospital sent her back home. That was a false alarm, but not this time.
She says she woke up her 78-year-old father, Jim Blake, and said, "Let's get going it's time."
The contractions were close and painful as she got into the front seat of the vehicle. Jim was driving his white Caravan, hoping to get to the hospital sooner than later.
Jim said, "90 to 100 miles per hour. I maybe looked over at my daughter once. I kept my eyes on the road."
Washington Hospital is a good 30 miles from where the family lives in Waynesburg, but only about eight miles into the trip on Interstate 79, Sarah's water broke.
"I pushed the baby's head out, got his shoulders out and body out. When his head came out he cried a little," she said.
KDKA's Brenda Waters Reports:
That's right, Sarah delivered her own baby while calling her mother and taking pictures of her newborn.
Jim says he was an EMT about 30 years ago, and all of that came back into memory. But when he talks about his new grandson, he gets pretty emotional.
"The baby cried just a couple of times, and he got quiet, and I said, 'You sure he's breathing?' and she wiggled his lips and got a reaction," he said.
Baby Asher Rome Smith is doing just fine. He weighed in at 5-pounds-4-ounces. He is being monitored at the hospital for a few days because he was five weeks early.
Blake has four other children, ranging in age from 1 to 6.
