'Seconds later the baby is in my hands': Wisconsin couple welcomes daughter after delivering her in hotel parking lot
A Wisconsin couple received an early holiday gift when they were forced to park in a hotel parking lot and deliver their newborn daughter.
Mayda Cardona-Brunk was set to give birth to her daughter on Dec. 1, but on the night of Nov. 26, Cardona-Brunk started having contractions. They intensified within minutes, and when they began to occur within one minute of each other, she knew she couldn’t wait any longer, she told ABC News.
The Brookfield couple was on their way to the hospital a little before 11 p.m. when Cardona-Brunk’s water broke.
“We were only in the car for maybe three minutes and she tells me her water broke,” husband Jason Brunk told ABC News. “I called 911, looked at her and said, ‘I can’t make it to the hospital.’”
“I could hear my husband talking to the 911 dispatcher and I told him, ‘She’s coming,’” Cardona-Brunk said with a laugh. “He kept saying, ‘Don’t push,’ but I kept thinking, ‘I am not holding this in.’”
Alex Graber, the 911 dispatcher, told Brunk to pull over and began to walk the couple through the delivery process as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
Brunk parked his car in the parking lot of the Country Inn and Suites on South Moorland Road.
“I’m thinking he’s going to ask me to deliver the baby. I wanted to see my little girl, but I didn’t think I would be delivering her in a car,” Brunk said.
Graber asked Brunk if he had any towels. He didn’t, but he had a large scarf.
“I had my scarf in one hand and my phone in the other. The dispatcher asked if I can see the head. I [said], ‘Yes, I see the head,’ and seconds later the baby is in my hands,” Brunk said.
When the paramedics arrived, Brunk told ABC News that he knew his job was done. “I turned around and said my job is done. You guys can take over now.”
The couple and their newborn baby, Layla Brunk, are currently at West Allis Memorial Hospital in Milwaukee, and they’re all in good condition, Brunk said.
Graber, who has only been a 911 dispatcher for about a year, said he was happy to be a part of the couple's special moment, according to Milwaukee ABC News affiliate WISN.
“I'm glad I could be a part of the special process, even though it wasn't the most ideal situation," Graber told WISN. "I'm glad it worked out in the end."
