Livingston Cop Delivers Baby While On-Duty

Livingston Police Officer David Naylor has been through it all in his twelve years on the force.  Or so he thought…

A little after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Naylor was dispatched to a house on Vista Terrace for a routine assignment.  A woman’s water broke and she was going into labor.  Typically, an officer waits on scene for an ambulance to arrive to bring the mother to the hospital.

“I walked into the front door and it was pure chaos,” Naylor said.

According to Naylor, the family was freaking out due to the labor.  The soon-to-be-parents were screaming, a two-year-old was running around and the baby wasn’t waiting around to be born.  As Naylor started calming everyone down, the mother, Rita Rak, realized that she wasn’t going to be able to wait.  She started undressing and as Naylor turned his head, he saw that the baby was starting to crown.

“I knew at that point of time that we were going to have this baby right then and there on this couch,” Naylor said.

Naylor started radioing that he needed an ambulance immediately.  He then noticed the bridge of the baby’s nose had started to appear.  It was also then that Naylor noticed that the baby’s face was starting to turn blue, typically a sign of low oxygen during birth.

“The mother was really apprehensive and did not want to give birth right there and she was kind of holding the child, she did not want to let go,” said Naylor.  “I got down on my knees and said ‘Listen, I have four kids, this is going to happen now; we have to give birth right now because this is to the point of (not) surviving on the inside or surviving on the outside.’”

The umbilical cord was tangled around the baby’s neck.  Naylor was able to untangle the cord and the baby was born.  Naylor was able to clean the baby up and remove any excess fluids from the baby’s mouth.  The baby started crying and its skin starting turning to normal.  It was then that all the other personnel arrived to help Naylor.  Instead they walked in to see the officer holding a newborn in his hands.

“In an emergency room, you usually have 10 doctors and specialists around,” Naylor said.  “But this really did go textbook.”

Naylor informed Rita that she was the mother of a new baby boy.  He then wrapped the baby up in a cloth and gave him to the mother.  Following the birth, everything relaxed and the family celebrated with the officers and medics in the house.

The family was transported to Saint Barnabas Medical Center and the baby is happy and healthy.

“I’ve been doing this job for twelve years and as most people know, unfortunately our job is 90% negative,” said Naylor.  “Typically we aren’t called to a house for a good reason.  And unfortunately sometimes we are mostly granted with the power of whether to take a life.  Fortunately in this case we could give a life.  It was a good feeling.”