By Ryan Haggerty
Chicago Tribune
Copyright 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
CHICAGO — Leticia Rosales, more than eight months’ pregnant and home alone with her 2-year-old son, thought she was simply having cramps.
Shortly after Rosales called her nurse-midwife for advice, however, it was obvious that her pains were far more serious.
“It quickly became clear as the conversation progressed that she was, in fact, in labor, in hard labor,” said Mary Williams, the certified nurse-midwife who answered Rosales’ call Aug. 28. “I thought there might be a baby coming quickly.”
The baby came so quickly that Rosales, 31, didn’t have time to make it to a hospital. Instead, she gave birth to her son Jayden at her Northwest Side home, assisted by Williams and a 911 operator who each walked her through the birth over the phone.
Rosales obtained a copy of the 911 tape last week and said she intends to have Jayden listen to it when he is older, especially because she doesn’t have many photos or mementos commemorating the birth. Rosales has already listened to it a few times.
“The first time, I cried because it just brought back everything I went through. I was overwhelmed,” she said. "[Later], I listened to it with my husband, and we were in awe. At that point I was laughing. I couldn’t believe this happened to me.”
Rosales’ husband, Allen, was attending a meeting at Kendall College when his wife went into labor about 7 p.m., three weeks before she was due.
She sent her 2-year-old son, A.J., downstairs to get her cell phone so that she could call her nurse-midwife. A.J. first came back with money, so Rosales sent him back to get the phone. A.J. went back downstairs, played with his T-Rex for a bit and then returned with the cell phone after Rosales called for him.
Once Rosales and Williams determined that she was in labor and that her husband would not make it home in time to drive her to the hospital, she told A.J. to bring her the cordless home phone. Sensing the urgency in his mother’s voice, A.J. came right back with the other phone, which Rosales used to call 911.
Lying in bed with A.J. in the room, Rosales listened to Williams and Anne Rannochio, a 911 operator for the Chicago Fire Department, as they helped her with the delivery.
Williams and Rannochio “were my angels sent from heaven,” Rosales said. “They made me feel like I was actually in the delivery room with them. Everything they told me to do, I did. They were very explicit and calm. They kept me calm, and that’s what helped.”
Rannochio can be heard on the tape coaching Rosales through the delivery.
“Breathe, hon, breathe,” Rannochio says on the tape. “It’s OK, breathe. Good job, good job.”
Jayden was born just before paramedics and Rosales’ husband arrived, the baby’s loud crying audible on the tape.
“When you hear the baby cry, you know the baby’s fine,” said Williams, who told Rosales to wrap Jayden with a sheet and hold him close to her chest.
Even while she prepared to give birth, Rosales made sure that A.J. wasn’t scared, Rannochio said.
“She was very together, very calm,” Rannochio said. “She was able to talk calmly to her son, and she was able to tell her son that his little brother was coming home today.”
Jayden is healthy and strong today, his mother said.