Sometimes Police Officers Become Midwives in Traffic Jams

Saturday night traffic officers stationed at Moscow MKAD Ring Road delivered the baby of a Zhiguli passenger. To enable an ambulance car with the mother and newborn to turn around, the traffic policemen closed the road in both directions, which immediately resulted in a huge traffic jam. Igor Koloskov, a Police Lieutenant Colonel, told RIA Novosti that such measures are rarely taken even for high ranking officials.

On Saturday, approximately at 8 pm, a driver asked the traffic policemen on duty at the 78^th kilometer of MKAD to call an ambulance for his 29-year old wife who was having contractions. The ambulance was called immediately, but the labor has already begun. Koloskov said that the traffic policemen had to deliver the baby on their own inside their security post. After its birth, the baby was wrapped in a police uniform shirt.

The ambulance that arrived later took the mother and her newborn to a Moscow maternity house. The doctors had no complaints about the work done by the “midwives.”

Both traffic officers and police sometimes have to deliver babies in unusual settings. All policemen have to go through mandatory first aid training.

At the end of May, a traffic officer on duty at Leninsky prospect delivered a baby from a woman stuck in a traffic jam.

In September of last year, traffic officers had to deliver a baby at Schelkovskoye highway where the woman’s husband got lost.

In Zelenograd, a city in the Moscow region, a traffic officer delivered a baby from a woman who lived in a house that was to be demolished. Her husband could not call a doctor because the phone has been already disconnected.