A 10-year-old Missouri girl played doctor and delivered her baby sister after her mom unexpectedly went into labor. With the help of dispatchers from 911, the big sister created a safe environment for her mother to give birth, keeping calm until emergency responders arrived.
On Sunday, Oct. 23, Viola Fair, 30, went into labor three weeks before her due date. Luckily for her, her appropriately named daughter Miracle Moore was with her and was able to assist her mom in the incredibly dangerous process of giving birth.
Young Miracle, a Jennings, Missouri, hero, was not aware of the staggering statistics that say the United States of America has the “highest maternal mortality rate of any high resource country — and it is the only country outside of Afghanistan and Sudan where the rate is rising,” according to the Mom Congress.
She also was not aware that “Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women in America.”
The fourth grader just knew she had to jump into action for her mom and her baby sister. For her calm demeanor and quick thinking, a month later on Wednesday, Nov. 16, she was presented with two certificates.
Miracle called 911, after her mom told her to, according to her interview on Hoda Kotb’s Morning Boost segment the “Today Show,” and followed the directions given to her by dispatcher Scott Stranghoener.
On the recorded call, she said, “Hi, I think my mom is in labor.”
For over ten minutes Stranghoener instructed her what to do, while simultaneously communicating with the EMT to arrive with their ambulance van.
Miracle appears to be calm as she listens to the dispatcher tell her what to do. He told her mom needed to be lying down on her back in the center of the bed or on the floor, and Miracle saw that she was.
The dispatcher told her to grab towels or blankets to place under her mom after she struggled to lie down, and she did.
The audio captured the mother screaming in excruciating pain, but Miracle didn’t appear to be shaken, instead, she comforted her parent and tried to calm her in her distress.
“It’s OK, Mama, it’s OK!” Miracle could be heard saying, as she says to Stranghoener, “I think her water broke…”
When the big moment came, before the ambulance, she announced with the excitement of a pre-teen, “She’s coming! she’s coming!”
Miracle was not so excited that she didn’t tell her mom to lie down, “She’s here! She’s poking out.”
Then the dispatcher, assessing the situation, said he would help her to deliver the baby over the phone.
The young girl said, “Huh?”
Before she knew it the baby was born and big sis was there to witness the miracle of birth.
“She’s out!” Miracle yelled. “She’s breathing and she’s crying now.”
Now that her sister was born, she had to help do some of the work a nurse in the delivery room typically does. She had to clean out the infant’s mouth and nose, still listening to Stranghoener who made sure he said, “Be very careful. Don’t drop the baby, OK?”
Miracle also made sure the umbilical cord was not wrapped around her baby sister’s neck. As she cleaned the baby, she followed Stranghoener’s lead, which told her to swaddle the baby in a clean towel, making sure to cover her head.
As she was done, first responders arrived at her home. She took them to her mother’s room, and they tended to the remaining needs of the mom and then took her to the Christian Hospital.
Christian Hospital paramedic Katie Barbero said, “We just picked the baby up first thing wrapped her in a blanket, and yelled ‘happy birthday.’”
“It was good,” Barbero continued, before saying, “We love seeing good outcomes for families and stuff like that. We do see a lot of bad things, but one of these special moments is the best because this is what we do it for.”
The emergency workers were there and Strangehoener knew it was time to end his call. His job was done. Before he hung up, the dispatcher told Miracle, “You did a very good job.”
When asked by KSDK about Miracle’s performance, the dispatcher had rave reviews.
“I learned pretty quickly that we had a serious situation,” he said. “We have a set of protocols that we follow, and she followed all of my instructions to a ‘T’ and did an amazing job.”
Her mother also had glowing reviews for her oldest daughter.
“It was definitely a miracle because once I had the baby, she came out, I couldn’t really grab her and pick her up and then Miracle came and she wrapped her up in a towel. She wiped her off and rubbed her back a little bit so she could cry. So, she was really helpful. I am very thankful,” Fair said.
After all the excitement, showing up as a hero for her family and the community at large, Miracle says she is considering going into the medical field when she grows up.
“I want to be a doctor,” Miracle said, pointing to the paramedics. “I want to be that kind of doctor.”
