911 dispatcher helps Utah parents deliver their baby at home

AMERICAN FORK, Utah (KTVX) — A Utah 911 dispatcher helped a family deliver a baby over the phone Thursday.

It was baby number five for American Fork couple Jennifer and Graydon Clark. Baby Henry spent Friday eating and sleeping, one day after his dramatic and intense arrival into the world.

“911. What is the address of your emergency?,” asked a dispatcher.

“My wife’s in labor. I need you here right now,” Graydon Clark replied.

Clark had just returned home from dropping his kids off at school Thursday morning to find his wife Jennifer delivering their fifth child.

“You said the water broke?,” the dispatcher asked.

“Right,” Graydon replied, with his wife Jennifer screaming in the background.

The voice on the other end of the line belonged to 911 dispatcher Heather Robinson, who talked Graydon through the delivery, including removing the umbilical cord from around the baby Henry’s neck.

“I was trying to stay focused,” Robinson told NewsNation affiliate KTVX Friday. “Baby was having a little difficulty breathing after he was delivered, so it was a little stressful then, and we wanted to make sure he was good.”

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“He’s crying now?” she asked on the 911 recording.

“Yes,” Graydon answered.

“Oh good. OK,” Robinson said.

Paramedics from the American Fork Fire Department took over from there, and on Friday, KTVX caught up with the Clark family via Zoom from their hospital room.

“He came out fast. He’s a little bit bruised,” Jennifer recalled. “He’s perfect.”

“You get a towel and you just, just make it happen,” Graydon said. “I think instincts just take over at some point.”

The Clarks’ four older children had the opportunity to meet their new baby brother for the first time Friday afternoon, and they are thrilled. Mom, baby, and dispatcher are all doing well.

“It’s really cool,” Robinson said. “I’m just happy that everything worked out for them and they get to enjoy their cute little new baby.”

“All is well,” Jennifer said. “He is healthy and we are just so happy and kind of on cloud 9.”

Or make that cloud 911.

“It was go time faster than we were able to get to the hospital,” Jennifer said. “And my husband got to do the exciting job of delivering baby Henry.”

“You can just refer to me…as Dr. Gray from now on,” Graydon said, laughing.