New Year’s Baby a TV Special : Medicine: Doctor says he manipulated birth time for televised religious service in Anaheim. He claims it was safe, but questions have been raised.

A doctor at an Anaheim birthing center on the grounds of Melodyland Christian Center says that he timed the delivery of a baby on New Year’s Eve so he could take the infant next door and display her for a midnight religious service being broadcast to a national television audience.

Dr. Charles Wesley Turner Jr., 64, who boasts of delivering more than 18,000 babies during his 41-year career, said he administered a “saddle block” anesthetic at the base of the mother’s spine, and used forceps to remove the baby, Myra Kristine Palmer.

Turner then swaddled the 6-pound, 12-ounce infant in a blanket, tucked her in a Christmas stocking and ran about 150 feet outside to another building, where the church service was being conducted.

“We had her (the mother) push at 11:59,” Turner said. “I put the forceps on and pulled (the infant) out. We had her at 15 seconds after midnight. . . . I used the forceps because I wanted to have the first baby in the New Year. And this was a planned delivery,” he said.

“I was highly jubilant,” Turner continued. “The congregation yelled and screamed and applauded. And everybody wanted to see the baby.”

Both parents were present during the delivery and gave their consent, Turner said.

“I felt a little funny because he took her and ran off with her,” said Brigitte Elke Palmer, the newborn’s 25-year-old mother. “But he (Turner) wanted to have her on TV. It was a special feeling for everyone to see the baby.”

When told of the New Year’s Eve delivery, Dr. Thomas J. Garite, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at UCI Medical Center in Orange, said, “It makes me raise an eyebrow or two.”

Garite said a forceps delivery is as safe as a spontaneous birth provided it is performed when the baby’s head is far enough down in the birth canal.

“Obviously, the ethical question that comes into play at that point is whether or not the mother was fully informed that (the forceps delivery) was being done for that reason,” Garite said.

However, Garite questioned the use of the “saddle block” anesthetic.

“It frightens me that somebody’s giving saddle blocks in a birthing center,” Garite said. While UCI is considering opening a birthing center, the university would “never consider” using such an anesthetic there because of the possibility of complications, he said.

“The only concern I would have is whether or not the warmth of the baby is protected adequately,” Garite said, noting that newborns do not control their body temperature very well. “You have to be real careful in taking the baby away at that point.”

Turner said that neither the baby nor the mother was in any danger, and that both are in excellent condition. He said he was careful to warmly wrap the infant before taking her from the delivery room.

Turner said a delivery had been planned more than three months ago, when Melodyland Pastor Ralph Wilkerson asked if he could provide a newborn baby for the church’s New Year’s Eve service.

“I told him (Turner) if we have a baby at the midnight hour, it’ll be extraordinary for our service,” Wilkerson said.

Said Turner: “About 7:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, I had about five women in the center, and I was trying to figure out which would be the easiest one to deliver. I decided that it would be (Brigitte) because it was her second baby. Her first weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and this one would be smaller and relatively easier to come out.”

At around 11:44 p.m., Turner said, his patient was more than nine centimeters dilated. One minute later, he administered the saddle block.

“In this way, I could control the delivery of the baby. . . . She was completely dilated at 11:55 p.m. and the head (of the baby) was ready to come out.”

Immediately after the delivery, Turner said, he “cleared up the baby’s face, clamped the (umbilical) cord, wrapped the baby in a receiving blanket, slipped her down into a large Christmas stocking and ran from the delivery room over to the podium at Melodyland.”

Wilkerson already had announced to the 4,000-member congregation and a Trinity Broadcasting Network television audience that they would have a newborn baby for the new year.

Times staff writer Sonni Efron contributed to this report.