With her first baby, labor lasted several days — so when Stefanie Andrade of Amityville started to feel labor pains yesterday morning, she chose to wait it out.
Contractions began at 1 a.m., but by 7 a.m., Andrade called her husband who was at work.
“I said you have to come home, you can’t leave me here,” said Andrade. “I’m going to have this baby right now.”
And she wasn’t kidding. She called her sister, who called 911, and the dispatcher at Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services, Corine Batista, helped talk her through it.
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"As soon as she got situated on the floor, I had her put a towel towel underneath her," explained Batista. “And we started delivering the baby."
Andrade's first baby was delivered via cesarean section and she was worried there might be a complication. Then there was the issue of the pain: She was doing this with no anesthesia, the pain excruciating — but she said she didn’t even feel it.
“I would like to tell you it was a 10 but the intensity and the adrenaline that I was feeling it didn’t allow me to feel pain,” said Andrade. “I was just like I have to push and that was my mission to make sure the baby was okay.”
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Andrade says hearing Batista walk her through the breathing was greatly helpful.
“The more she spoke the more calm I felt, and I was like you know what, I have to follow what she’s telling me, she knows what she’s doing and I have to trust this," said Andrade.
Andrade’s husband Chris Castro walked into the bathroom just in time. She was ready to push. It took anywhere between five and 15 minutes, depending on who you ask, and baby Cali was born with three quick pushes.
That’s when Suffolk County police officers arrived.
“We heard the baby cry,” said officer Diego Montero. “That was the biggest relief meant she was healthy.”
“With the help of the police dispatcher we were able to tie off the umbilical cord with a shoe string inside the apartment,” said Officer Michael Stroehlein. “To basically stop the bleeding.”
