Hurricane Irma Brought Babies, Too: Meet The Mom Who Gave Birth In The Storm

MIAMI, FL — As Hurricane Irma loomed over Florida, Tatyanna Watkins in Miami had another visit arriving a few days early: her soon-to-be-newborn daughter.

As everyone else was told to hunker down, stay safe and ride out the storm, Watkins went into labor two days before her due date.

Watkins, 23, and her boyfriend called 911 and were conferenced in a three-way call on Sunday with an obstetrician after midnight to deliver the baby at home — rescue teams couldn't get out in that weather. (For more information about the recovery from Hurricane Irma, subscribe for free to the Miami Patch and receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you're outside of Miami, find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

For 45 minutes, first a dispatch supervisor, then the doctor walked the couple through delivery and told them to use a shoelace to tie off the placenta so that the baby didn't bleed. Destiny Knight was born weighing six pounds, 11 ounces and measuring 20 inches.

"I am just amazed. I am still kind of shocked, but I just think that I am here, she is here, and everybody is safe," Watkins said at a news conference Wednesday carrying her sleepy newborn, who sucking on a green pacifier. "It was traumatizing."

Her boyfriend, David Knight, looked up and agreed. "Yeah, traumatizing," he said.

"He still wasn't talking by the time he got to the hospital," joked Dr. Kendra Gillespie. "I just thank God everything is alright."

Emergency dispatcher supervisor Desiree Farrell said this wasn't her first delivery on the phone, but it was the first time when emergency rescuers couldn't make it to the scene. "At one point, I remember dad saying, 'Can you please stay on the phone with me?'" she said.

Watkins had been evacuated from her home in Homestead, a suburb south of Miami. She had sent her two other children with her parents and was set to hunker down at the apartment of her boyfriend's mother in Liberty City.

As far as her baby's name, she had already decided on Destiny even before the storm was heading to Florida.
"Irma wasn't even thought of," Watkins said.

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images