With no time to get to the hospital, an Irvine dad had to play doctor and deliver his wife’s baby Tuesday morning with some help from a 911 dispatcher.
"He was really calm and understood everything I told him," said dispatcher Mishele Richards.
Sarina Jordan’s baby wasn’t due for two more weeks, but when the contractions started coming, there was no slowing the process.
"I called my husband and said, ‘You better come home!’" Jordan said.
While her husband made it, it was now too late to go to the hospital.
The father made a call to 911 from their bedroom just after 11:30 a.m. and got Richards on the phone.
Richards said not to push, but there was no turning back – the baby was already crowning.
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"I wanted an unmedicated birth and I got it," Jordan said.
When baby Amalyn Elise was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and she wasn’t breathing.
"We always like to hear a baby cry. That way, you know they have air," said Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Concialdi.
It was not exactly the birth the couple was expecting, but the dad didn’t panic.
"Dad listened to the dispatcher and carefully removed the cord and started stimulating the baby, and then the baby started crying," Concialdi said.
Jordan and her baby are healthy and happy, as they spend their last night at Saddleback Memorial Hospital before heading home Wednesday.
The Jordan family's advice for expecting parents is simple: "Make sure you get to the hospital."
