Husband catches newborn one-handed as wife delivers on way to hospital

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Two unrelated Tri-State couples at Mercy Health Fairfield Hospital are the proud parents of newborns who came into the world in unique ways.

Ryan Emge’s one-handed catch of his daughter, Rebecca, deserves a Gold Glove Award.

“Rebecca made it evident that she was coming and not waiting,” said Kelli Emge.

Ryan and Kelli were driving on the highway on their way to the hospital Friday when Rebecca decided for herself it was time to come out.

“Real quickly, [Kelli] took her seatbelt off, put her knees on the seat facing the back and started giving birth in the passenger seat while I was driving on the highway,” Ryan recalled.

Faced with a determined baby, the couple had to improvise.

“I had kind of a freak-out and I was like, ‘Honey, do you want me to pull over? What do I do here?’ And she’s like, ‘No, keep going, we need to get to the hospital,’” he said. “The baby started coming out, so I just reached over with my hand and I caught the baby.”

Rebecca landed in Ryan’s hand, and he let her gingerly down onto the seat below.

“It was, like, the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen,” he said of his wife. “She just handled the whole thing.”

Around the same time, another unusual birth was taking place elsewhere in the city.

Kenariye Delaney always wanted to have a homebirth.

“But I didn’t expect it to happen that way,” she said.

She says she had several days of false labor this week. On Friday, Kenariye knew the baby was ready, so her partner called an ambulance.

The baby didn’t wait.

“He came within five minutes of that phone call,” Kenariye said.

Two minutes later, the ambulance arrived to provide medical assistance.

Both families say they’re grateful there were no postnatal complications that required medical intervention.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2021 WXIX. All rights reserved.