Cape Cod Woman Delivers Neighbor's Baby, Helps Save Him

(NECN: Greg Wayland) - Jeremiah was cradled in his mother's arms at Cape Cod Hospital. But that's not where he was born two weeks early at six pounds, three ounces.

Mother Kaitlynn Halifax has twins and another child, but wound up needing neighbor and friend Skylar Rodericks to deliver Jeremiah on the bathroom floor of  Kaitlynn's West Yarmouth house early Tuesday morning while the snow was falling.

This definitely was not the plan.

"She Facebooked me," Skylar said, "because she knows how much I love babies."

Rodericks is a mother of three small children. Halifax Facebooked her just to come over and babysit Halifax's kids while her sister drove her to the hospital.

"So, I get over to the house, and she's in active labor," said Rodericks.

"I had, what, maybe three or four contractions right after that," said Halifax.

"Before we can even get the clothes on, she's like, 'I got to push,' and I'm like, 'Oh, my God,'" said Rodericks. "Of course, we're all in a panic mode."

"I wasn't sure where we should go," said Halifax. "I tried to go lay on someone's bed, and she's like, 'No, no, no, go lay in the bathroom!'"

"Literally, the second I put her on the bathroom floor, within two pushes, the baby was out," said Rodericks.

But there was a problem. Jeremiah's color was bad and he wasn't breathing. There was a call to 911, but without EMT's or any equipment, Skylar, a school bus driver who had had EMT training at Cape Cod Community College, lacking an aspirator to clear the baby's nostrils, used her own mouth for suction and the baby Jeremiah began to breath and cry.

"It was just amazing," said Rodericks.

By then, Grandmother Dominga Tierouz, who was present for all this, had called the baby's father, Joaquin Ortiz, who had been out at his snow plowinig job since 4 a.m.

"She said, 'your son's here, he was just born on our bathroom floor,'" said Ortiz.

As for Rodericks' actions?

"She deserves an award, because the way she kicked into action and the way she got everything under control was just phenomenal," said Ortiz.

Rodericks calls the whole experience something she'll never forget.

"It's a gift from God," she said of Jeremiah.

Halifax says she'll be his godmother.

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