Community Corner
Sheriff Praises Dispatcher Who Helped Couple Deliver Baby On I-94
The dispatcher's help amid the high-stress situation is "an example of the great work our team does, day in and day out," the sheriff said.
WASHINGTON COUNTY, MN — A Washington County 911 telecommunicator who answered as a Wisconsin mother was giving birth in her car in Woodbury last week is being lauded by the county’s sheriff.
Vicki Herrmann picked up the phone when Baily Bieniek-Phelps and her husband, Tim, called 911 around 11 p.m. March 20 from the Interstate 94 off-ramp for Radio Drive and Inwood Avenue.
“Even though the baby was already ‘out,’ Vicki was ready to help,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post, crediting Herrmann for calmly walking Tim through “how to tie off the umbilical cord using a shoelace.”
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Herrmann has been a public safety telecommunicator since December 2015 and servers as a training officer for new employees at the Washington County 911 Communications Center.
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Sheriff Dan Starry said Herrmann’s help amid the couple’s high-stress situation is “an example of the great work our team does, day in and day out.”
“Telecommunicators are the backbone of public safety and the integral link between those experiencing an emergency and first responders on the scene,” Starry said in a statement to Patch. “I’m proud of our public safety telecommunicators and the outstanding job they do.”
'A Birth We Would Never Forget'
Baily Bieniek-Phelps said she woke up on the morning of March 20 with a few small contractions and began to track them, knowing “I have babies fast.”
By 9 p.m., her contractions were happening about 10-15 minutes apart, and two hours later, her water broke.
That sent Baily and Tim racing from their home in New Richmond, Wisconsin, to the Mother Baby Center in St. Paul. The couple only made it about three-quarters of the way through their trip when Baily started to give birth.
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“As we were going down 94 in Woodbury contraction #5 hit and I knew at that moment this was going to be a birth we would never forget!" Bieniek-Phelps wrote on Facebook about the drive to the hospital.
Bieniek-Phelps said Tim’s “daddy mode kicked in” as he pulled their SUV to the side of the I-94 westbound off-ramp for Radio Drive and Inwood Avenue.
"He flew out of the driver seat (and) ran to my side of the car,” Bieniek-Phelps wrote. “As he helped pull my pants off he could see all of Ariel's head was out."
Tim "didn't think twice" and told his wife to "take a deep breath and push!" Bieniek-Phelps wrote.
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Ariel Olive Marie Bieniek-Phelps was born at 11:40 p.m. Sunday in her parents' SUV, weighing 6 pounds and 15 ounces, her mom said. She has four siblings: Remington, Wesson, December and Benjamin.
Tim used one of his shoelaces to tie off Ariel's umbilical cord until paramedics arrived, with help from Herrmann.
Bieniek-Phelps told Patch last week that she and Tim "keep replaying the whole thing out and talking about how crazy it was."
She said the experience taught them that "we can fly by the seat of our pants and work together instead of panicking."
"We didn't know the true strength of ourselves or one another till this moment," she said.
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