Dispatcher coaches mom through delivering her own baby solo

Saturday, December 3, 2016
911 dispatcher walks expectant mother through labor
A 911 dispatcher coached a mother through her solo delivery as first responders raced to the scene.

HOUSTON -- For Renae Whitehouse, a dispatcher at the Cypress Creek EMS Communication Center, the overnight hours from Wednesday into Thursday morning were busier than normal.

But around 3am, she got the most memorable call of her young career.

"I answer the phone and she tells me I'm in labor, and I could hear her in pain," she told Eyewitness News.

The 26-year-old caller was 39 weeks pregnant with her second child, calling from her living room floor.

This wasn't your normal "I'm having a baby" call:

Whitehouse: Is anyone else with you?

Caller: No.

Whitehouse: You need to feel down there and see if you can feel anything.

Caller: I think I feel the head.

"At first I was like, it probably won't happen before the medic unit gets there," she said. "And then she just had contraction after contraction after contraction. It was like oh this is really happening."

She talked this laboring mom through her solo delivery.

"Apply firm but gentle pressure to keep the baby's head from delivering too fast," she told the caller on the phone.

About eight minutes into the call, deputies knock on her door, and then seconds later, the baby was out.

"I cried a little bit after it was done. I'm not gonna lie. I was just so happy. I asked her the name," Whitehouse said.

The baby's name is Kennedy, and mom says she's perfect!

And as for Whitehouse, she says playing a part in the delivery was the best feeling in the world.

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