Crime & Safety

Woman Gives Birth to Baby Girl on Taconic State Parkway in Yorktown

Written and reported by Plamena Pesheva.

What started out as a typical day turned out to be extraordinary for the mother of a new baby girl, a cab driver and a police officer on his way to work. 

Lt. James Luciano of the Westchester County Police Department was on his way to work Monday morning when he saw that a Lincoln Livery vehicle had pulled over with the hazards on and the front passenger car door open. The car had stopped on the Taconic State Parkway southbound, just north of exit for the Bear Mountain Extension. 

Luciano, a 25-year veteran who was wearing his uniform, pulled over to make sure everyone was OK, thinking the car might have broken down.

He was in for a big surprise. 

"The last thing on my mind was that I would find a woman ready to give birth imminently," Lt. Luciano told Patch. 

When he got to her, the 36-year-old woman was lying on her side and asking for her. The cab driver was on the phone to alert authorities. Luciano immediately slid back into his unmarked vehicle to contact his unit and request paramedics. 

Lt. Luciano then grabbed the basic life support kit out of his truck and pulled on his gloves. As he was getting back to the woman in labor, he saw the cab driver waving his hands as if to say "hurry up." The woman kept turning on her side; Lt. Luciano reassured her she would be OK. 

"[Then] the baby came out," Lt. Luciano said. 

He wrapped the new born baby girl in sterile dressing and cleaned her head and face. The time of birth: Aug. 5, 2013 at 9:06 a.m. 

"The baby started crying and I put her on her mother's chest," Lt. Luciano told Patch

He described the baby to appear to be in full term and nwithout complications. The new mother and her baby were transported to the Hudson Valley Hospital Center with the help of Yorktown paramedics. 

"It was one of the best feelings I've had in my tenure as a police officer – assist to bring a life to the world," said Lt. Luciano, a father of two children. "Just happy to help, mom did all the work."

This is the first time Lt. Luciano had to deliver a baby during his 25-year-long career as a police officer. He had previously helped deliver a baby while working as an EMT 27 years ago, but he said at that time he knew he would be helping a woman in labor and had the proper equipment. 

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