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Dispatcher helps talk family through delivering baby along the side of road

Posted at 10:00 PM, Jun 01, 2014
and last updated 2014-06-02 00:00:53-04

SALT LAKE CITY – A family had to pull their car over and call 911 as a woman went in to labor, and a dispatcher helped talk them through the roadside delivery.

The Senkels said they weren’t expecting their baby to come that day.

"We had plenty of time, is what we were thinking,” Rebecca Senkel said.

The family began heading to LDS Hospital, but baby Eden was coming too quickly, so Greg Senkel pulled over and called 911. Dispatcher Amy Woodall answered, and she used her five years of experience to help them through the scary situation. Portions of the 911 call can be heard in the video above.

Woodall said Greg Senkel was pretty worked up before she began offering instruction. She told him to tie the umbilical cord.

She said: "I think once we started doing the shoelace, I think that that's when he started to calm down, 'OK I've got a job to do, I've got to do it.'"

The Senkel family said they planned to meet and thank Woodall for her help.

"We made contact and made an appointment with her to go visit her and show her the baby, apologize for freaking out and panicking, and to thank her too for being there for us,” Rebecca Senkel said.

Woodall said she was glad to meet the family.

"We don't get to see the people we help very often,” she said, adding: “I love that they took the time to bring the baby in, and she's super cute and sweet. That was really nice of them to think of us when really they had their own things to think about and do."