When Sgt. Brian Maynard pulled over Laura and Jimmy Baker, he was preparing to deliver a ticket. Instead, the state trooper summoned an EMS team, which delivered the couple's baby girl on the side of North Carolina's US 64 highway.
It all began Saturday night in suburban Raleigh when Laura Baker got in a minivan with her husband for a visit to the hospital to check on some contractions she'd been having. Then, 10 minutes into their drive, she suddenly went to labor.
"I said, 'I cannot control this, we're not going to make it there,'" Baker said.
So when her husband spotted Maynard's patrol car, he did everything he could to get the officer's attention, speeding and flicking his lights.
"As soon as we pulled over, my water broke," Baker said. "And my husband jumped out with his arms up, saying, 'My wife's in labor and I really need help.'"
All three knew they didn't have time to get to a hospital. Maynard called the EMS team in nearby Wendell but was prepared to do the job himself.
"I said, 'OK, well, we're going to do this right here, me and you,'" he told CNN affiliate WSOC.
So Baker's husband and Maynard held the mother's hands and urged her to wait for the EMS team.
"My husband and the trooper were nervous, because they certainly weren't prepared," she said. And when the EMS team arrived, everyone realized they couldn't get Baker on a stretcher. So she delivered in the front seat of the van.
It was this team -- as well as the trooper's assistance -- that Baker said she's most thankful for.
"Without them, I don't know how successful it would have been," she said. "It was maybe a five-minute experience, but a vital five-minute experience. [The EMS team] did everything to make sure it was sanitary and healthy."
Baker was taking her baby, Halyn, home Monday and was planning on paying a visit to the EMS team that helped keep her infant daughter healthy throughout the delivery. She doesn't know much about the EMS crew, but she'll be looking for Charlie and Danny, who held her hands throughout the birth and walked her through every step.
"She was born outside in 40-degree weather, but she's a perfect, healthy little girl," she said. "They did everything perfect."
