Two LAPD officers helped deliver a baby girl in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon before paramedics were able to arrive, according to police.
The delivery happened in an apartment building located at 451 S. Main St., police said.
The officers were responding to reports of a woman screaming, police said. When they arrived at the fifth floor, the woman was pacing in a hallway.
Four building security officers were already with the woman when the two LAPD Central Area officers arrived. LAPD Officer Clinton Popham, who has four children of his own, recounted the delivery.
“You could see she was nine months pregnant,” Popham said. “Her water had broke already.”
The police officers asked the young woman to lie down and began timing her contractions; an ambulance was called but the woman started to give birth before it arrived.
“I told her, ‘You gotta push, you gotta push now. If you don’t, something bad might happen to the baby,'” Popham said.
The mother pushed hard and delivered a baby girl who was quickly wrapped in a blanket, the officer said.
The baby and the mother were taken to the hospital, and both were doing fine, Popham said.
“A Christmas baby! We are very proud of our @LAPDCentralArea officers who helped deliver a baby this afternoon. #SpecialPresent,” Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Marc Reina tweeted Monday.
Chief Charlie Beck praised the officers’ work helping ensure “this special gift arrived safely.”
“While we typically leave the delivering of children up to the professionals, when service is needed, your #LAPD officers are there to answer the call-whatever it may be,” Beck tweeted Monday night.