A Kona woman and her newborn daughter are doing well, three days after roadside delivery by the father, a Hawaii Police Department officer.
Marcella Ochoa entered the world at 9:10 a.m. Tuesday near mile marker 10 of Highway 190. The healthy baby girl weighed in at just under 9 pounds.
The baby’s father, Mario Ochoa, a 35-year-old Kona patrol officer, found his police and Air Force training “pretty useful” — as well as childbirth videos he and wife Ryan watched prior to the birth of their 2 1/2-year-old son, Ronan.
The Ochoas were en route to North Hawaii Community Hospital for the birth of their second child, but around mile marker 11, it became apparent the delivery room was going to be the front passenger seat of Ochoa’s sport utility vehicle.
“We were almost to Waimea and that’s when her contractions were visibly more severe,” Ochoa said Thursday. “A couple of minutes later she said she was going to have to start pushing. I told her if she could hold on we were almost there. That’s when I called 911 and told them to get an ambulance rolling.”
Ochoa considered turning on his lights and siren and continuing to the hospital but decided against it. Keeping his cool, he pulled over and prepped for delivery, donning a pair of rubber gloves officers routinely carry.
“Pretty much when I pulled over, that’s when the baby started coming out,” he said.
By the time the ambulance arrived, so had Marcella.
“Everything went great. My wife did great. She was awesome,” he said. “I tied the cord; I didn’t cut the cord. They came and they had some clamps, so we cut the cord. And then they got my wife out through the back door. They put the seat flat. And then they got the baby and her out and took them to the hospital. I just followed them.”
The Ochoas have returned home with their bundle of joy.
“We’ve got a great story to tell her,” said the proud papa, who’s been a police officer about a year and a half. “I’ve been joking that I’m gonna have to start charging people to be a midwife.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.