Pregnancy

Ring Camera Captures Woman Giving Birth on Her Front Lawn

The Johnsons now have a story to tell for years to come - and the footage to back it up!

(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Emily Johnson couldn't wait to meet her new baby, but little did she know she would give birth to him on her front lawn in a "surreal" experience that was captured on camera.

Baby Thomas could not wait for his mom to make it to the hospital to make his debut, even though she had a carefully plotted birth plan involving an epidural.

"I was really eager to be done," Johnson, from Vacaville, California, told KCRA 3, an NBC affiliate. "I was hoping he was going to come early, but we never really knew."

Johnson started having contractions on Thursday, a week before her baby's due date. Since the contractions were only every 10 minutes for about three hours, she and husband Michael Johnson was confident they had plenty of time to make it to the hospital, which was just a five-minute drive away. But soon, the contractions started to get closer and closer.

"The contractions went from three minutes to two minutes to one minute in a matter of 20 to 30 minutes, and we are like, 'Oh, we got to get into the car, we have to go,'" Johnson said.

Johnson and her husband hurried to their car, but it quickly became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to make it to the hospital.

"We got to the car and I just said, 'No, I can't get into this car,'" she said.

Instead, Johnson instinctively knew that there was no time and place like the present. She recalled thinking, "I'm going to get on the grass. I'm going to be here. This is my spot."

Johnson's mother, Kristy Sparks, arrived on the scene and was already on her hands and knees with Johnson when she saw the baby's head emerging. A rescue crew arrived on the scene shortly after what Sparks called a "surreal" birth.

"By the time they walked up to me, I had a baby in my arms crying," said Sparks. "It was unreal."

"I just laid back in the grass and took a nice deep breath. ... I never want to do that again," Johnson said.

The surprises didn't end there: The entire experience was caught on the family's Ring camera, which means that the Johnsons have an amazing record of Thomas's extraordinary birth that they can watch again and again.

"I was like, 'Oh, this is going to be on the camera,'" Michael Johnson said. "I'm going to watch this and we share this."

"I'm just thankful that I was facing in that direction because otherwise, I don't think we'd be able to share the video footage with anybody," Emily Johnson joked.

After the rescue crew checked out the mom and baby, they went to the hospital. There, Johnson recounted her experience to medical processionals.

"I joke that I was like a cow giving birth in the field, because once I got to the hospital, I had grass clippings falling right off me," Johnson said. "The nurses were wiping dirt off my knee and I'm like, 'Oh, I did give birth in the lawn.'"

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