Couple delivers first child at home with the help of paramedics

Click here for updates on this story

    WALLINGFORD, Conn. (WFSB) — A surprise delivery for a Wallingford family.

Their baby boy wasn’t waiting for doctors and nurses. Instead, he was ready while mom and dad were at home.

Paramedics arrived to help make it as smooth as possible.

Randy Gonzalez III is one happy baby and he has quite the story about how he came into the world. His parents, Kim and Randy Gonzalez, spoke to Channel 3 about the experience.

“I remember once Randy was joking, oh I bet I can deliver the baby and I was like don’t even say that,” Kim said.

But on September 14, it’s what happened at the family’s Wallingford home. Randy called 911.

“The baby is coming, Kim is screaming. I see hair,” Randy said.

He was pretty calm for what was happening in their bathroom.

“My wife’s water broke, and we need an ambulance. She’s having a contraction right now,” Randy told the 911 operators.

Firefighter and paramedic Leo Pon responded to the call.

“Mom was about to give birth. It was obvious after examination that she wasn’t going to make it to the hospital, so we planned for a childbirth in the home,” Pon said.

That’s exactly what happened.

“I was really glad that they were there. The operator was like your husband has to be ready to delivery this baby and I’m like no, no we need someone else here. They were there within five minutes and felt so much better knowing that they were there,” Kim said.

Wallingford recently changed how the fire department and EMT services are staffed, making for more efficient service.

“We really want to make sure we got the right people to the right place at the right time. So, what we decided to do was to hire 16 EMTs and created a BLS ambulance,” said Sam Wilson, Deputy Fire Chief EMS Operations.

The new service helped the Gonzalez family. Kim says she went to the hospital a few times over a two-day period before the baby was born, but was sent home.

Having the baby at home worked out in the end.

“It was better than most of the COVID-19 births you see where families can’t be in contact, mother can’t see the child, and got to be right there with the little guy and my parents actually got to be there too because they were driving by and saw ambulance in the street and said oh no. She knew I was feeling I was going into labor,” Kim said.

The month of September has even more meaning. The couple was engaged during the month of September, they were married in September, and the couple’s first child was born in September.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.