New Jersey officer helps deliver baby during labor emergency at Wawa parking lot

BERLIN, N.J. -- A routine traffic stop turned into an unexpected delivery room for a Berlin Borough police officer who helped a woman give birth in a Wawa parking lot after being dispatched to assist a family experiencing a labor emergency.

Patrolman Dominic Hodson of the Berlin Borough Police Department had been assisting with a nearby traffic stop when dispatch directed him to a Wawa on Route 73 for a woman in labor.

Body camera footage captured the dramatic moments as Hodson arrived and approached the vehicle, where Taylor Durham was in active labor. Moments later, the baby was born inside the car.

"She actually had the baby on the seat. So I stepped up, you know, picked the baby up, made sure the baby was breathing and wipes the fluids away from the nose and mouth," Hodson said.

Hodson said the experience was unlike anything he had encountered before.

"It was a little nerve-wracking. I don't have any children, never delivered a baby. So I didn't know what to expect," he said.

Asked about the most challenging part of the delivery, Hodson said, "I would say how slippery the baby was. Yeah, a lot of fluids on it. Wasn't expecting that with the rubber gloves."

Taylor Durham and her husband, Phil Durham, of Newfield, were driving to Virtua Medical Center in Voorhees when labor progressed rapidly.

"We were driving I don't know a couple minutes, and I was definitely in labor," Taylor Durham said.

Phil Durham said he decided to stop when he realized help was nearby.

"I had passed an officer, somebody for whatever, for a traffic stop. OK, and I knew and in the area, the ambulance, somebody had to be close to the baby. I knew he was minutes away, so I had to stop," he said.

According to the family, a baby boy was born about three minutes later. Hodson arrived in time to check the newborn's condition until emergency medical personnel reached the scene.

"Just being on the phone with dispatch, I could sense that somebody was there, that I wasn't alone," Phil Durham said.

Action News was present when the new parents met Hodson for the first time after their son's birth.

"You guys did incredible. Thank you, thank you," Hodson told the family.

Reflecting on the incident, Hodson downplayed his role.

"They say that we do it all," he said. "We're out, you know, solving, you know, delivering babies. So it's it's a job with a lot to do."

He added, "If anybody is heroic it's the mom and the dad."

The department later presented the family with a care package of baby supplies and a department-themed onesie. Hodson said the call was his first baby delivery and that he had not known what to expect.