Dad Delivers Newborn Daughter on I-495 in Family Van

CONCORD,MA—Dad’s the world over have played some sort of a role in the delivery of their child, but many do not expect to deliver a newborn baby by themselves.

Mark Scalise was placed in that position. According to a report by the Boston Herald, Scalise and his wife Jennifer were en route to Emerson Hospital in Concord when Jennifer realized she was not going to make it in time. Mark and Jennifer later delivered the family’s third child, daughter Harper Grace, in the back of their new van.

Chris Villani, who broke the story on the Boston Herald’s website reports:

The new mom said she began having contractions early this morning and when they started to accelerate, she knew it was time to go. Her husband was driving her to Emerson hospital in Concord just after 6 a.m. when Jennifer, who has already given birth to two boys, realized he was not going to make it in time.

“I yelled at him that he had to call 911 and pull over,” she said. “The second I stepped out of the vehicle, I knew I was going to deliver the baby.”

Mark first had to remove the infant car seat he had already installed in the van’s back seat, Jennifer said. She got into the back seat and, within minutes, Mark was catching their new daughter in his fleece jacket. Some frightening moments followed, Jennifer said, as they waited for first-responders from Boxboro and Bedford to race to their location on the snow-covered right shoulder of the highway between exits 26 and 27 on 495-North.

“It was scary, but it was more like, it happened so fast you didn’t have time to be scared,” she said.

The couple made sure their new daughter was breathing and as warm as possible, she said. When police and EMS arrived, they took over, making sure both mother and daughter had oxygen, and transported the family to Emerson Hospital in Concord — where Harper was intended to be born.

Boxboro Fire Chief Randolph White said that it was the first time he could recall his department assisting in a roadside birth, according to the report.