Baby in Breech Position Delivered On Way to Hospital

NAPERVILLE, IL — A baby in the breech position was delivered safely by paramedics with the Naperville Fire Department.

Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said they had received a call for a child birth and when they arrived on the scene, the baby was in a breech position, where the legs or the buttocks come out first.

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“It’s very rare,” Puknaitis said. “Especially in this day and age. Less than three percent of deliveries are seen as breech because of the diagnostics and everything else.”

Paramedics, with medical guidance from the hospital, performed an emergency procedure in the back of the ambulance before the baby arrived at the hospital.

Puknaitis said he’s been in the field for 30 years and has never seen a breech delivery where they had to perform a surgical procedure in the field.

Without the procedure, the baby was in danger of dying because of the lack of oxygen. Within 22 minutes, from the time the call came in to the arrival at the hospital, they had the baby delivered.

“These procedures are done routinely in the hospital, but they’re very rarely seen in the field,” Puknaitis said.