The Trafalgar and Franklin firefighter had about two minutes to act before the baby came.
Tyler Sneed, a Trafalgar volunteer Firefighter and Franklin full-time firefighter, lives just off State Road 135 southwest of Trafalgar. At 6:06 p.m. Wednesday an emergency call came in that a woman was in labor in a car parked at Samaria Christian Church, on the far south side of the county.
Sneed lives less than a mile from the church. Instead of going to the fire department to get a truck, he pulled into the church’s parking lot and found a woman in the late stages of labor. He got into the car and asked the woman questions for about 30 seconds. About 90 seconds later, a baby boy was born.
That baby, born in a car in a Trafalgar church parking lot, is the first baby born in 2020 in Johnson County. The baby was due Jan. 2, according to the 911 call.
The baby and his mother were taken to Community Hospital South following the birth, said Mark Dunn, chief of the Trafalgar Fire Department.
Now, Sneed has a story to share as he delivered Johnson County’s first baby of the decade.
He became a volunteer firefighter in Trafalgar in 2000, and has been full-time at Franklin’s fire department since 2005. He also worked at the Bargersville Community Fire Department for a few years in the early 2000s. Learning to deliver a baby is part of the training firefighters undergo, he said.
“We are trained to do it. It is just one of those things that very rarely happens,” he said. “You hear about it. It just doesn’t happen that often.”
Sneed received the call as soon as it came in and decided it would be quicker to go straight to the church, he said. When he got there, the woman who was delivering told Sneed the baby was well on his way.
“She was telling me, we have to go, it’s here,” Sneed said.
The firefighter searched his memory and tried to recall the training he had received for this scenario decades ago. Other first responders were arriving at the scene, but Sneed knew they were running out of time.
“I never looked back, once I got into the car with her, I never looked back,” he said. “They are not here right now and this is happening right now, so this has to be done, so we did it.”
He helped ease out the baby’s head and shoulders and cut the umbilical cord. The baby was born less than 10 minutes after the 911 call came in, Sneed said.
First responders hear about babies being delivered before they reach the hospital, but rarely meet the scenario head on. Sneed has had close calls over the years, but was always able to get the woman to the hospital on time, he said.
Firefighters plan to welcome the baby and his family to the station in the next few weeks for photos. The experience is a positive way to kick off the decade for the department, Dunn said.
“It was pretty cool. It was an awesome way to start off the new year, the new decade,” he said.
Sneed wants another look at the baby he helped deliver.
“I kind of want to see that baby too. It is kind of a big deal,” Sneed said.
No babies were born on Wednesday at Johnson Memorial. Franciscan Health Indianapolis’ first baby was born to an Indianapolis couple. Baby Jonah was born at 5:14 a.m. Wednesday to Michele and Danny Engelhardt of Indianapolis, according to a hospital news release.
Community Hospital South’s first baby was born to a Fishers couple who had received care from the south side campus before moving to the north side. Kabir Gulati was born at 10:14 a.m. Wednesday to Kapil and Anshika Gulati. The couple moved to Fishers during the pregnancy, but chose to deliver at the south side hospital, according to a Community Health Network news release.
