Calif. Firefighters Deliver Baby Hours After Training

It was just another training day over at the Ross Valley firehouse, where Dr. Mark Bason-Mitchell arrived to give firefighters a lesson at the downtown San Anselmo station.

"We have all sorts of training activities, and doctors from Marin General come once a month on different topics," firefighter Todd Standfield said.

Monday's topic: "Childbirth and obstetrics."

Hours later, the doctor's emergency birthing advice was put to good use when the Ross Valley Fire Department's Engine 19 was dispatched at 7:40 p.m. to handle an "imminent childbirth" in a Hyundai that had pulled over on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard not far from downtown San Anselmo.

The driver of the car, Maryanne Heffernan, operations manager of the Marin Association of Realtors, watched as her son, Jason Heffernan, talked to a 911 operator and tended to his wife, Jessica Palmer, in the back seat.

Palmer was giving birth, her legs propped against the door, as Heffernan cradled his baby son's head and shoulder, looking to see that the umbilical cord was not wrapped around the infant's neck, as it had been with the Fairfax couple's other three sons.

It was a painful task, because Heffernan had suffered a broken collar bone three days earlier during a fall while mountain-biking on Mount Tamalpais.

Firefighters arrived, urgently waved alongside the car by a policeman who got there moments before. "Get over here! Get over here!" the officer told the fire crew.

"They came running up and took over," Jason Heffernan said. "They were great."

"We could see the baby's head crowning," Standfield said. "It was pretty exciting."

Capt. Mark Weston, a veteran who delivered a baby several years ago, took command as Standfield retrieved an obstetrics kit from the fire truck. Weston promptly delivered the healthy baby boy, clamped and snipped the umbilical cord, and smiled as the infant began wailing loudly. "It was a good sound," Weston said.

County paramedics in Medic 18 based in Ross rushed mother and child to Marin General Hospital.

"It's a good feeling," Weston said of the birthing drama. "It's a good thing to be able to help someone."

Palmer, resting at Marin General's maternity ward Tuesday afternoon, said she and baby were doing fine, and so was her mother, Maryanne, whose birthday also was on Monday. Jason Heffernan is nursing a sore shoulder and has scheduled another doctor's appointment to check on his re-injured collar bone.

The new baby, a week overdue, was named Charlie Fast Heffernan -- not because of his speedy delivery, but in tribute to the speed favored by mountain bikers.

Copyright 2012 - The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service