A woman who delivered her baby in a Silver Spring intersection Thursday said she was grateful to the Montgomery County Police officer who pulled over to help.
Mom-to-be Hilda Aguilar said she and her husband were halfway to the hospital when she realized the baby just wouldn't wait any longer.
"I felt a range of emotions, but above all, I was thinking of the baby," she said through an interpreter.
A Montgomery County Police officer pulled over to help. Officer Dan Campbell tried to escort them to the hospital, but the baby wasn't going to wait, so they all pulled over for a second time.
"I could see that the baby was crowning already, and being delivered," Campbell said. "I was able to put on my gloves, and at that point, Mom did all the work, and a beautiful baby boy came out."
Aguilar's son was born around midnight, in a car at the intersection of Georgia and Dennis avenues.
"And I asked my husband, 'Please, help me; support the baby's head'," she said.
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Her husband put his fingers in the baby's mouth to get him to start breathing.
"It all appened so fast," she recalled.
Aguilar said she was grateful to the officer.
"And I'm very grateful to the police officer, because I saw him approach with a covering for us. He took the baby in his arms, he held him for about five minutes, and I'm very grateful because the police officer was not wearing any outerwear, and it was very cold."
Aguilar said the officer told her, "Good job.... And I would also like to tell him, 'Good job. Thank you so much'."
She said the officer didn't speak Spanish, but she speaks a little English, "and so somehow we understood each other."
Aguilar said that if they hadn't already planned a name for their baby, they would have considered naming their little one after him.
Campbell called an ambulance, and the new mom and her newborn were taken to a Silver Spring hospital.
