New mother, Susan Anderson, was about to walk into Florida’s Natural Birth Works last Thursday when her baby decided she couldn’t wait that long — and was born in the parking lot.
RING doorbell footage reveals Anderson leaning over slightly with her husband, Joseph Anderson, and midwife, Sandra Lovaina, at her side.
Then, suddenly, just feet away from the building — a baby emerges from her loose shorts. Two cops who happened to be in the area look on.
“During the car ride to the birth center, I turned to my husband, and I was like, ‘I need to push!” Anderson told Local 10. “By the time we got to the first step, the head was coming.”
The baby girl, who was later named Julia, begins to then cry.
After the center posted the clip to Facebook, it quickly went viral.
“Multitasking by catching a baby and letting them know we were all good was quite the experience! One of the most exciting births of 2020,” the caption stated. “One we won’t forget! Mom & baby are doing amazing and we can all laugh at how awesome this birth was.”
Lovaina discussed the happy incident over Zoom with another of the center’s midwives, Gelena Hinkley, just last weekend.
“It’s so crazy. We never expected all this attention. It’s just mind-boggling. We are so happy that it brought smiles to people’s faces and it brought a little joy in the world during this craziness,” said Lovaina. She went on to explain how this type of delivery is not uncommon and occurs in roughly one in three women.
She also shared how both she and the mom had to make decisions and fast: try to make it inside or give birth where she was standing.
“I asked her, ‘Are you OK to walk?’ and she said, ‘Yes,” Lovaina said of the first-time mom. “The baby was already making its way and she was like, ‘uh-oh’ [but] she was in control of the entire situation.”