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Detroit police officers share story of delivering baby on front porch

Posted at 6:13 PM, Oct 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-16 18:19:41-04

"He yelled that his wife was in labor...and up there we went," said Officer Scott Barrick.

Barrick, on DPD's force for 23 years, says it was a call to duty he never expected. 

In the early morning hours of October 6th, he and Officer Alyssa Wadas had been dispatched to the 2500 block of Cabot street where a man was stabbed.

But after arresting the suspect, they were pulled into another scene just steps away.

"She was already in full labor, full contractions," said Officer Alyssa Wadas of the mother she then saw on her front porch, seemingly trying to carry out a home birth.

The father told the officers they had been waiting for their mid-wife but that she had not yet arrived and that they needed some assistance.

It was something Wadas says she didn't have a whole lot of preparation for -- just a video in training on what to do before paramedics get there if baby being born.

Just five minutes after arriving on scene, Officer Wadas says she found herself literally catching the baby in her hands.

And the most relieving part was that important sound.

"The best part was when the baby cried for the first time because then we knew baby was okay," said Wadas.

The officers say they started their shift that day pulling a body out of river. They ended it helping give birth to a baby.

They say it was a first-time experience on a one of kind day.