911 Dispatcher Coaches Brave Mom Through Labor

[6 ABC] HOUSTON, Texas — For Renae Whitehouse, a dispatcher at the Cypress Creek EMS Communication Center in Houston, Texas, the overnight hours from Wednesday into Thursday morning were busier than normal. But around 3 a.m., she got the most memorable call of her young career. “I answer the phone and she tells me I’m in labor, and I could hear her in pain,” she said. The 26-year-old caller was 39 weeks pregnant with her second child, calling from her living room floor. This wasn’t your normal “I’m having a baby” call: Whitehouse: Is anyone else with you? Caller: No. Whitehouse: You need to feel down there and see if you can feel anything. Caller: I think I feel the head. “At first I was like, it probably won’t happen before the medic unit gets there,” she said. “And then she just had contraction after contraction after contraction. It was like oh this is really happening.” She talked this laboring mom through her solo delivery. “Apply firm but gentle pressure to keep the baby’s head from delivering too fast,” she told the caller on the phone. About eight minutes into the call, deputies knock on her door, and then seconds later, the baby was out. “I cried a little bit after it was done. I’m not gonna lie. I was just so happy. I asked her the name,” Whitehouse said. The baby’s name is Kennedy, and mom says she’s perfect! And as for Whitehouse, she says playing a part in the delivery was the best feeling in the world.

First off, hats off to Ms. Whitehouse and all the other 911 dispatchers out there who have to deal with callers who are completely frantic, terrified, angry, and sometimes just pulling the cops’ chain (just like this little boy who tried to get officers to his home). Think about it: people often have a hard time calming down loved ones and best friends, let alone perfect strangers. And getting the right information out of callers can be a completely different battle. But this dispatcher truly went above and beyond the call of duty by walking this terrified woman through the most intense day of her life. Not only did she have the pregnant woman’s life in her hands, but now a newborn baby, too.

Secondly, bravo to baby Kennedy’s amazing momma! They say your second baby comes a little easier, but it took a lot of guts (literally) for this woman to go through labor completely on her own while staying on the phone. She’s definitely going to make one great mom!