NYPD officers deliver baby in back seat of mom's car in Manhattan
CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) -- Two NYPD officers were in the right place at the right time to help deliver a baby in the back of a woman's car.
The woman went into labor Saturday night just after 9 p.m. at West 22nd Street and 11th Avenue in Chelsea.
Police officers Michael Schiaffo and Ronald Vincent were part of a Strategic Response Group convoy heading up the West Side Highway when they spotted a family frantically waving for help. A woman was going into labor and crowning.
NYPD officers are not trained to deliver babies, not even the elite cops from the SRG. But Officer Schiaffo has been trained, and has done this several times before.
He was with the FDNY for a decade before becoming a police officer and had delivered four babies as an EMT.
"Once I ran up to the car they were all like 'you got this Mike,'" said Schiaffo. "And I'm like alright I just need you to help me assist, you know. But everybody was helping, passing gloves, towels, while I was in the car...I need this, I need that."
"If he wasn't there it would've probably been a whole different scenario," said Vincent.
So they went to work inside the couple's small sedan.
"I'm a big guy so I took like half the back seat. She's up against the door you know," said Schiaffo. "The father is in the front. He's just looking, watching. The mother was great. She was in the back seat. True champion. She wasn't complaining, nothing. She was great."
The Brooklyn couple was on their way to the hospital when their baby girl, their first child, decided she wasn't going to wait any longer.
Within five minutes, the officers helped deliver the girl in the back of the woman's car.
Both mom and baby are said to be doing well.
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