RANDOLPH - Firefighters usually go to the scene of an emergency. Wednesday morning, the emergency came to the front door of the Randolph Fire Department: an expectant Stoughton mom in labor.
Capt. Mike Rennie, firefighter Steve Glassman and five others in Group 2 delivered a baby girl at 8:16 a.m. Wednesday, shortly after the woman's husband drove to the town's main fire station on his way to South Shore Hospital.
"The father said her labor pains were so bad, he didn't think he could make it to the hospital," Glassman said. "So he pulled up in front of the station."
He and the rest of the crew were performing their daily equipment checks at the end of their overnight shift when the couple arrived. Rennie says firefighters make at least one emergency delivery every year, so they were ready.
Glassman and the others put the woman onto a stretcher in an ambulance parked at the station. Her water had broken, so Glassman and Rennie got in position to catch the baby, as firefighters John Previti, Bill Brewer, Kevin Donovan, Matt Stanton and Tom Tevans assisted.
Within minutes, the baby girl was cleaned up, getting oxygen and in her mother's arms. The ambulance crew then drove them to the hospital in Weymouth.
"They usually don't go this smooth," Rennie said of the delivery.
The names of the couple and baby weren't immediately available.
For Glassman, the delivery was a real-life lesson for the paramedic training he's undergoing.
"It was pretty intense," he said.
Copyright 2013 The Patriot Ledger
