A Norwood mother's ambulance ride to the hospital took an unexpected detour Monday when her labor progressed too fast to finish the trip. The ambulance pulled over on the side of I-95, and firefighters stepped in to help deliver a healthy baby boy right there on the highway shoulder.
The mother was en route to the hospital when it became clear the baby wasn't going to wait, according to Boston 25 News. With no time to spare, the ambulance crew brought the vehicle to a stop along the interstate, and the outlet reports the ambulance itself helped deliver the newborn before the ride could continue toward the hospital.
Norwood Firefighters Local 1631 publicly recognized three of their own for the roadside assist, crediting firefighters Colombo, Cunningham and O'Malley for their work during the delivery. The union's message, shared on Facebook per the same Boston 25 News account, offered congratulations to the family on its newest arrival.
Not Norwood's First Roadside Delivery
This isn't the first time Norwood firefighters have found themselves catching a baby outside a hospital's walls. In an earlier incident, a family was en route to Brigham and Women's Hospital on a Thursday morning to deliver their first child when the baby girl arrived early — this time in a parking lot rather than on the highway. Firefighters George Burton, Ed Fitzgerald, Scott St. Cyr and Steve McDonough rushed to help, and the mother delivered a healthy baby girl right in the lot of the Savers thrift store on Route 1, the station's report notes.
Monday's delivery is still being treated as a developing story, and further details on the family or the baby's condition have not been released.
A Familiar Scene on I-95
Roadside deliveries along I-95 aren't unique to Norwood. A couple welcomed a baby girl on the highway in Attleboro while heading to the hospital one Tuesday evening, according to WPRI. In that case, the father had already delivered the baby on the side of the highway before first responders even arrived, and paramedics who assessed the pair afterward found both mother and baby in healthy condition before bringing them to Sturdy Memorial Hospital.
Accounts of the Attleboro response differ slightly on timing: WPRI reported first responders were called to I-95 North around 5:10 p.m. for the reported childbirth, while the Fall River Reporter put the Attleboro Fire Department's dispatch at just before 5:15 p.m. Either way, that department's crew arrived to assist a family that had already managed the delivery on their own, a reminder that babies on this stretch of interstate don't always wait for sirens.
Out-of-hospital births remain rare across the state — state data cited by Massachusetts show under 1% of births in 2017 happened outside a hospital setting. But for the handful of families who do find labor outpacing their drive, it's local firefighters and ambulance crews, from Norwood to Attleboro, who end up on the front lines of the state's rarest deliveries.
