US: Cops rush to house in Colorado on reports of woman screaming, help her deliver triplets

The police in the US state of Colorado were responding to a call about a screaming woman in the middle of the night, but none of them could have imagined what they would confront. 

The incident took place earlier this month where four officers from the Greeley Police Department found a 24-year-old woman in active labour on the front porch and helped deliver her babies. 

What happened?

The Greeley Police Department dispatched officers at around 3:30 am (local time) in response to “reports of a woman screaming in the front yard” and found a 24-year-old woman “lying on the front porch in obvious pain,” said the department. 

The officers quickly realised that the woman was in active labour and called the emergency medical personnel while trying their best to keep the woman comfortable as the ambulance arrived. 

Subsequently, the officers heard a faint cry and realised that a baby boy had been delivered and he was turning blue. At the time, it was snowing and raining and the temperature was around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (zero degrees Celsius), said the police. 

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“One officer located bread ties to tie off the umbilical cord while another ran to nearby homes and collected towels and blankets to help keep the new family warm,” said the police. 

A third officer who was with the new mother tied off the umbilical cord and cut it, while a fourth officer rushed the baby boy to the patrol car to keep him warm. 

Inside the vehicle, the baby had stopped breathing, prompting the officer to administer infant CPR, and the medical staff arrived shortly after and were able to help the child. 

As it turns out, that was not the end of it. The new mother told the officer who was with her that she was expecting two more babies. The officers immediately called for more medical personnel to the scene. 

A second baby boy was delivered with the help of the officers and “was also rushed to the ambulance where medical personnel were still tending to the first baby,” said the police. 

“The first two babies were taken to a local hospital for advanced medical care. A second ambulance arrived, and officers assisted the mother into it. She was rushed to the same hospital and immediately taken into surgery to deliver the last baby.”

How are the babies?

All three babies had strong heartbeats and were being taken care of in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), said the police. 

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The police also believe that the 24-year-old was home alone when she went into labour and her phone had died so she tried to get to her neighbour’s home to call for help. 

Eric Mayeda, the father of the triplets, took to Facebook and said all the babies are “doing well!” 

“Kiku and Billy are both improving by leaps and bounds! Hopefully kiku can be extubated sometime in the next week or so. Billy they are thinking maybe in the next 2 weeks,” he added. 

He also thanked the Greeley Police Department and the first responders who “help(ed) my baby boys come into this world.”

(With inputs from agencies)