Mom gives birth on side of turnpike with help from turnpike maintenance worker, trooper

ABINGTON, Pa. - A warm reunion at Jefferson Abington Hospital between a Montgomery County mom and a Pennsylvania Turnpike first responder, who literally saved the day when the mom, Andreena Reid, had to pull over to the side of the highway to give birth to her baby boy.

"Every time I look at the baby, I get emotional. Every time I look at the turnpike, I get emotional," Reid stated.

Emotional after the shock of a lifetime, "I think I was in shock. Like, did this really just happen?"

She says she was at the hospital earlier in the day, but was sent home by doctors who said she wasn’t quite ready for delivery.

She got home, but didn’t feel right and decided to take matters into her own hands, putting her one-year-old in the backseat to drop him off at Grandma’s. She didn’t make it so far.

Reid explained, "I don’t know why I thought I could drive with contractions, do this or that. I just had a whole game plan, but didn’t get anywhere but the side of the road."

Feeling intense contractions, she pulled over and called 911. Within 10 minutes, baby Santana was in her arms.

"For a second, I was scared. But, then after he came, it was a relief and I was like, okay, I’m not in pain anymore," Reid continued.

Drawing strength from her toddler in the back seat, "I still have one in the backseat who is not making any noise, so I have to stay calm."

And, she was grateful to the first responder for being the first face she saw.

"We got the call, it was a medical emergency," Robert Stenger, a Pa. Turnpike maintenance utility worker, stated. "I walked up to the car. You were so calm, I was like, ‘This isn’t the right car.’ When I finally looked down and I saw a baby 90 percent in the world, I’ve never seen it before. I don’t have children. So, it was a wild moment." 

EMS crews were quickly alerted and rushed her to the nearest hospital.

She remarked, "For a woman to actually have a baby in a car? Just alone? At 3 a.m.? That’s not the average time to be on the road, let alone have a baby. I was just happy to see someone else outside of just me and the baby."

She added that her heart remains full and thankful for his presence during one of the most important moments of her life, "It makes me appreciate life a whole lot more because it shows me that there are still wonderful people in this world. I can’t thank him enough. No words will describe how I truly feel, just to see someone there meant everything."