Aurora Officer Steps In After Birth In Parking Lot

AURORA, IL — Police officers helped deliver a baby in a parking lot the early morning hours of Dec. 18. One in particular, Officer Nicole Holland, was recognized in an email sent to the police department from Aurora fire officials. Lt. Kevin Nickel from engine 9 thanked the police officers Thursday for handling the situation at the corner of Church Road and Bilter Road.

Police and fire responded to a pregnant woman who is in labor in her vehicle in the parking lot of Northwestern Medicine clinic. By the time Officer Nicole Holland had arrived in the van she was driving, the woman had just given birth.

Holland arrived to a mother, her daughter, and her new baby boy in a minivan with the doors open in very cold temperatures.

"Usually we don't respond to calls in a van, but we were in the area, so we stopped," she said. Officers Jared Fischer, Ryan Blaskey and Brian Baumann were also at the scene.

Two officers were already there, she recalled. They were asking frantically for gloves, and were unsure of what they should do next. She had a pair, so she jumped into action, cutting the umbilical chord and testing the baby's motor functions, making sure it was breathing and crying.

"She was kind of out of it," Holland said, of the mother. "But once we started talking to her, she warmed up to us a little."

Once fire fighters and EMTs arrived minutes later, she handed the baby to the medical experts. Just three years on the force, she's never experienced anything like this before. It was a first for the other the two officers who were already at the scene, too. None of them had gone through childbirth, and officers aren't trained for such an uncommon occurrence.

"But, I'm a woman, so I figured at least maybe I'll know a little more than the other guys," she figured.

Once the baby was treated my paramedics, both mother and child were taken to the Presence Mercy emergency room.

Records from the National Weather Service show that day's low temperature was 35 degrees in Aurora.

Holland can't recall exactly what the temperature or time was, but she did say it was "pretty cold." As for the mother, Holland doesn't even know her name. She remembers something about the family being from Chicago, but wasn't sure why they were in the suburbs. The officer did, however, speak with a medic a couple days after the event, who said the mother and baby were doing just fine.

Nickel added in his letter, "I feel Officer Holland went over and beyond her assigned duties. I have been on a number of critical calls with Officer Holland and she has shown exemplary service to our citizens. I just wanted to inform you of yet another great job by one of your officers."

Aurora police said very few people seemed to know about this "amazing feat," and that it didn't come to the attention of command staff until they received the letter Thursday.

Image via Aurora Police Department