Calif. dad helps wife deliver baby in home

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., March 6 (UPI) -- Keith and Katherine Arthur were packing up to head to the hospital Wednesday morning for the birth of their daughter when Katherine's water broke.

“We aren't going anywhere," Katherine, 29, told her husband.

Keith Arthur helped settle his wife on the floor of the closest bathroom in their Laguna Niguel, Calif., home, surrounding her with pillows and blankets before calling 911.

Emergency dispatcher Brodie Lefebvre answered the call and helped talk Keith through the birth of the child, Colette -- the couple's fourth.

Lefebvre, who has eight children of his own, including two adopted from the Congo, stayed on the phone until paramedics arrived.

“He was extremely calm and did exactly what I told him to do,” Lefebvre, 39, said. “I was able to be there with him and draw on my own experience as a father in the delivery room and keep him calm.”

Arthur said he was able to draw on years of watching Rescue 911 -- and his Little League experience -- to help him through the ordeal.

“There’s something about knowing I was the first person who welcomed her into the world rather than a doctor,” Arthur, 32, said. “I did play catcher in fifth grade.”

Katherine Arthur, who was quiet through the birth and had been training in hypnotherapy, said the birth was the easiest one yet.

"I was just able to turn off my fear," she said.

After paramedics checked on Katherine and Colette, and let Keith cut the umbilical cord, mom and baby were taken to Saddleback Memorial Hospital in Laguna Hills, where they were resting comfortably on Wednesday.

[Orange County Register]