Two Boston officers make a special delivery -- a seven-pound baby

(Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Officers Francis and Rodriguez visited with the new mom today.

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

It was 11:50 Sunday night when Flor Ayes told her husband, Christian Santamaria, that her water had broken. The couple and their 11 year-old-daughter piled into the family's silver Honda Accord and started driving from their Lynn home to Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We were like halfway and she was like, 'I can't hold it,'" Santamaria said.

He pulled over his car in East Boston and ran into a convenience store to call for help.

Officer Joel Rodriguez and his partner, Officer Anthony Francis, got to the scene at Neptune Road and Bennington Street at 12:45 a.m.

Rodriguez quickly donned his gloves and climbed into the front seat of the car to deliver the baby. In only a minute or two, Rodriguez said, the baby was out.

"She did great, she was a trouper," Francis said of the new mother.

It was the first child for Santamaria, who waited outside as his wife gave birth. His stepdaughter, also named Flor, was in the back seat while her mother was delivering her little brother.

"I watched it a little," said Flor, a fifth-grader. "I just stopped, though. It was kind of weird."

Once the baby was out, Rodriguez wrapped him in blankets and had the mother hold her baby against her chest to keep him warm.

About 15 minutes later, an ambulance arrived and took baby Christian and his mother to the hospital. Today, the family met with reporters in their hospital room.

Ayes, an immigrant from Honduras who speaks little English, said she was "happy, very happy" about how everything turned out. Christian weighs 7 pounds, is 19 inches long, and is very healthy, Santamaria said.

Officers Rodriguez and Francis each presented the new baby with a small teddy bear emblazoned with the Boston Police insignia.

Santamaria was grateful for the hard work of the two officers, saying he was close to having to deliver his son himself.

"If it wasn't for God, for them, it would've happened," he said.

For the Ayes-Santamaria family, the story of Christian's birth will always be memorable.

"I'm never gonna sell that car, I'm gonna keep it forever," said Santamaria. "I'm gonna give it to him someday."

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