Thanks to video, Marine in Iraq is at wife's side during labor

A staff member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston held newborn Mia Victoria Paredes so that her father, Marine Lance Corporal Edwin Paredes, stationed in Iraq, could see. He witnessed her birth via satellite from his military base. (Boston Globe)

Yashira Paredes said she saw a different side of her husband after she became pregnant. By her side at every doctor's visit, he would gaze at ultrasound pictures and take on a surprising gentleness whenever they talked about their expected child.

"It was like a really sweet side of him," Paredes, 20, said of the man who had been her high school sweetheart. "He's always been sweet, but in a different way."

So, it might seem unusual that he was not by her side at the birth of their daughter early Saturday. That's because Marine Lance Corporal Edwin Paredes was on a supply line in Taqaddum, Iraq. But he managed to be part of his wife's delivery anyway.

As Yashira lay on a hospital bed at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Edwin watched, waited, and comforted his beloved through a video teleconference from his military base. The video link was arranged by Freedom Calls Foundation, a charity that provides free video teleconferencing for military families during deployments.

"I always dreamed of something very different," Yashira said of the birth of her first child. "But it was very close. It's better than not having him there at all."

Yashira, a native of Dorchester, and Edwin, who grew up in East Boston, met while students at East Boston High School and married in May 2006, two weeks before her senior prom.

"We knew he was leaving. He had already signed the papers to go to the Marine Corps," she said.

The young couple moved to an apartment in Lynn and a few months later to Camp Pendleton in California. About a year and a half later, they found out Yashira was pregnant. They already knew Edwin would be deploying to Iraq on Aug. 25. Her due date was Dec. 26.

"When I found out I was pregnant and he was deploying, I thought, Oh my gosh, I'm going to go through it alone. He's not even going to see her," she said.

The Marine Corps gave her a packet of information for expectant families and inside she saw a flier for Freedom Calls Foundation. The New York-based nonprofit, founded by Holden native John Harlow, has helped hundreds of military families connect across thousands of miles during major life events.

Harlow said he started the service in 2003 because he was outraged over the hefty phone bills some military families faced to stay in touch.

Yashira Paredes, who has been staying with her mother in Medford during her pregnancy while her husband has been away, said she went to the hospital Friday night and called her husband 1 1/2 hours later.

In a video of the delivery distributed to media by the hospital, Yashira Paredes is seen asking her husband, "Are you ready?" as the labor progresses.

"The question is are you ready?" a clearly nervous Edwin Paredes responded.

"I'm ready," she said.

"He got very serious when it came to pushing time," Yashira said in a telephone interview. "And then he was just kind of like in shock. He wouldn't say anything. He just stared at the baby.

Mia Victoria Paredes was born at 4:56 a.m. and weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

The new parents spoke with each other in another teleconference yesterday morning at the hospital. Freedom Calls will provide for three video calls a month for the duration of Edwin's deployment, so he can see his daughter grow.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.