Arrival Interrupted Lunch : Childbirth Drama Casts Film Producer as Midwife

Film executive Michael Whitney is rather pleased with his latest production.

It started out as a routine business lunch last week. It ended with Whitney playing a starring role in the delivery of a six-pound girl to a 29-year-old Sherman Oaks woman.

Mehrak Heidarnia said she and her husband were rushing from Sherman Oaks to Gardena Memorial Hospital on May 14 for the birth of their second child when it became evident that Culver City was as far as they were going to get.

In a panic, they pulled off the San Diego Freeway and headed for the Pacifica Hotel, where they hoped to find a doctor.

That’s where Whitney came in.

“We had just sat down and ordered lunch in the restaurant in the hotel lobby when a woman came running in the door and called for a doctor or nurse,” he said. “She said a lady was having a baby in the driveway.”

Whitney hurried outside the hotel and found Heidarnia giving birth in the front seat of her car.

“People were standing around, but nobody was assisting,” he said.

Childbirth Training

Having gone through childbirth training with his wife in preparation for the birth of their daughter 11 months ago, Whitney went to Heidarnia’s aid.

He saw the baby already had been expelled from the womb but had become entangled in her mother’s clothing.

He freed the baby, saw that she was breathing safely, untangled the umbilical cord from around her arm and placed her on the mother’s stomach until paramedics arrived a few minutes later.

Mother and child were taken to Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City and released that afternoon.

“Mother Nature is really the one who delivered the child,” said Whitney, owner of a Culver City film production company.

But the new mother and her husband, musician and songwriter Ferbdoon Heidarnia, are grateful to Whitney. They invited him and his wife, Donna, a Santa Monica neurologist, to dinner this week to celebrate the safe arrival of little Salma. The Heidarnias also have a 10-year-old daughter, Natasha.

Salma has gained a full pound in her first week, and, in spite of the unusual circumstances of her delivery, “she didn’t have a scratch on her,” her mother said.

The Heidarnias said that in recent months they had lots of advice from friends on what hospital would be best for the delivery of their baby and chose Gardena Memorial.

“Everyone made suggestions, but my husband says our Toyota was the best hospital of all,” the new mother said.