Local News

Somerville police help Walpole mom deliver baby on side of road

The couple was headed to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge but realized they wouldn't make it in time.

Somerville Officer Courtney Reece, Lt. Carmine Vivolo, and Officer Dylan Lambert helped a Walpole couple deliver their baby on the side of the road last month. Somerville Police Department

By Susannah Sudborough

July 6, 2022

A Walpole couple is thanking Somerville police after three officers helped deliver their baby on the side of the road last month.

The father said in a statement that the couple was headed to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, where his fiancé works, to have the baby when it happened.

The mother’s contractions started at 9 p.m., he said, and her water broke at 10 p.m. They met his parents on the highway to drop off their 1-year-old son on the way, while calling the hospital to warn them.

In his panic, the father said, he missed the exit and realized the hospital was 12 minutes away. His fiancé made it clear to him that they did not have enough time to get there before she would give birth.

Police said that on June 14 around 11 p.m., officers were on Washington Street following up on an earlier incident when a pickup truck pulled over and the father got out and explained the situation.

Lt. Carmine Vivolo and Officers Courtney Reece and Dylan Lambert jumped into action. Vivolo tried to make the expecting mom comfortable and assess her medical needs while Reece called for an ambulance, reassured her, and got information from her fiancé.

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Realizing the birth was happening right at that moment, Vivolo helped the mother prepare for the birth while Reece looked for clean towels or clothing to catch the baby. At that point, Somerville firefighters arrived with a baby birth box.

The father said in his statement that Vivolo was able to put on some gloves and catch the baby when she was born at 11:05 p.m.

The officers and firefighters had suctioned the baby’s nose and clamped the umbilical cord by the time the ambulance arrived. They then let the paramedics take over care of the mother and baby, but made sure to get a few pictures so that the new parents would remember the eventful day.

“With luck on my side and Lt. Carmine and his crew being there at the right time and the right place, he was able to deliver my beautiful daughter. I am grateful, thankful, and honored to have had someone like Lt. Carmine to deliver my baby,” the father wrote.