A San Dimas couple's race to the hospital ended before they ever got there. Just after midnight Thursday, the expectant parents couldn't make it to a hospital in time, and their newborn baby arrived on a San Dimas road instead, as originally reported by KTLA.
The father called for help when his wife went into labor in their car, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson cited by NBC Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded to the possible childbirth call, which came in at 12:12 a.m. at the intersection of Via Verde Drive and the 57 Freeway, per an LAFD spokesperson.
By the time crews arrived, the baby had already been delivered. Emergency personnel loaded the mother, who was alert and speaking to paramedics, onto a stretcher and into an ambulance while she held her swaddled newborn, the outlet reported.
Local Fire Crews on the Front Line of Roadside Deliveries
Emergency dispatches for unplanned childbirth outside a hospital setting can involve the final stage of labor, cord care, and keeping a newborn warm immediately after birth. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded to the call.
The stretch of the 57 Freeway and the Via Verde interchange where the birth occurred was described in the report, but the available material does not identify the responsible California Highway Patrol office. The available material also does not indicate whether any prehospital blood program or transfusion was used in this case.
Why the Drive to the Hospital Got Longer
The scramble to reach a hospital in time highlights the importance of access to maternity care across San Dimas and much of California. The available material does not establish whether San Dimas Community Hospital closed its maternity services, why any such closure occurred, or which alternative facilities served expectant mothers.
San Dimas is far from alone. The available material does not establish the number of California or Los Angeles County labor-and-delivery units that closed or whether a study linked such closures to longer travel times. CalMatters reported that nearly 60 hospitals and labor-and-delivery units across California have closed since 2012, with roughly 30% of those closures in Los Angeles County.
Hospital administrators point to high operating costs, staffing shortages, and declining birth rates as the drivers behind the closures, per CalMatters. The available material does not establish California's annual birth totals or whether 2021 marked a historical low. It also does not establish whether Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1300 or what notice requirements it set.
For the San Dimas family, the outcome was a delivery on the side of the road rather than in a delivery room. Both mother and baby were loaded into an ambulance, and no further details on their condition were available.
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