An expecting Massachusetts mother received quite a surprise Friday morning when her twins decided not to wait for her to get to the hospital.
The Leominster mom and her husband were heading to UMass Memorial Memorial Medical Center in Worcester when they quickly had to pull off of Interstate 190 in Sterling, according to fire officials.
When paramedics arrived, the mother was in labor inside her vehicle.
"It's really not what I had planned when I got up this morning," said paramedic Rob Nickerson, who arrived in his ambulance first.
Paramedic Erin Cullinane arrived on scene a few moments later.
"As I was pretty much opening the door, the first baby, he was catching the first baby so it was like, 'all right let’s do this'", said Cullinane.
Within minutes, a healthy baby girl was born in the ambulance at 6:58 a.m. That's when the paramedics learned the mother was actually having twins.
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"You're relieved when you have the first one born. You don't realize you're going to deliver a second one now," said Nickerson. "It's kind of like you really have to step up your game a little bit."
Fourteen minutes later, a healthy baby boy came into the world. The mom and babies were then taken to UMass in Worcester — their original destination.
"She was relieved and a little overwhelmed but I don't think it was in her plans to deliver her twins on the side of the highway," said Cullinane.
Cullinane said these are the first babies she's delivered on the side of the road. For Nickerson, they are his third and fourth.
