Birth Instructions Over Phone : Fire Official Reaches Out and Helps Deliver

An out-of-the-ordinary emergency was handled over the telephone Monday as a Huntington Beach Fire Department dispatcher talked a 38-year-old Westminster woman through the birth of her son, Fire Department officials said.

Steve Rothert, 41, an 18-year veteran with the department, coolly talked Ella Youngblood through the delivery while Fire Department paramedics were on their way to her Wells Road home, fellow dispatcher Nancy Fuhrmann said.

“He basically reminded her of the things to do, when to push and how to control the pain and what to do once the birth occurred . . . place the baby on the (mother’s) tummy,” Fuhrmann said.

“Baby boy is doing great and the mother did a great job also,” Fuhrmann said. “She held onto the phone the whole time . . . they talked the whole thing. It was his background as a father and a fire dispatcher that did it.”

The mother and baby were transported to the Family Health Plan in Fountain Valley, Fuhrmann said.

“These are things that we have to do,” Rothert said matter-of-factly. “We do things like that almost every day.”

Rothert said he drew on his experience of being present at the birth of his own three sons.

Youngblood “had gone through the natural childbirth classes and that made a big difference,” Rothert said.