Lexington Police Officer Delivers Own Baby!

About Town:

Officer Delivers Own Baby LPD's Sal Mirabella and wife Jessica welcomed Dominic -- in their bedroom.

By Denise J. Dubé of Lexington Patch

Sal and Jessica Mirabella have one heck of a story to tell their children and grandchildren. When they do, I hope they convey the heroics of everyone involved.
Dante Mirabella, was born in the hospital at 4:45 p.m 2 1/2 years ago. Their second son, Dominic, arrived at 4:45 a.m., only he chose to make a quick entrance into his parents’ bedroom.

It’s a story out of an action movie, only this one really happened on Aug. 30.
Sal, who has been with the Lexington Police Department since 1996, works nights and patrols our streets. After hearing his story, I’m glad he’s out there protecting us.

At exactly 4:09 a.m., Jessica called Sal, one week before her due date, and told him her contractions started after 3 a.m. She called the doctor at 3:30 a.m. and again when they got stronger. He told them to get to the hospital immediately.

Sal called his parents and everyone arrived at the house at 4:25 a.m. “OK," Sal told Jessica. "Let’s make our way down to the car.”
But it was way, way, way past taking a deep breath and waiting for the next contraction.

No, Jessica told Sal she couldn’t get to the car she was having one contraction after another.

“You need to call rescue, I can’t go to the car,” Jessica told Sal.
“That’s when I started to freak out," Sal said.
He couldn’t have spent much time in panic mode, because her water broke right after he dialed 911. Somehow, someway Sal’s training kicked in.

Capt. Joe O’Leary told me as much the other day, but I heard it firsthand after talking to Sal. “She asked me to clean her up from the water breaking,” Sal said. “That’s when I saw the head.” “She started screaming, ‘I have to push,’” Sal said. “I said ‘push..’” Sal recalled. “In the middle of all this, she actually screamed, ‘I need an epidural.’”

Dominic made his debut exactly 20 minutes after Sal walked in the door, but he’s not taking the credit. “All I did was catch the baby,” Sal said. “My wife really did all the work. Her body was telling her to push. She pushed one time and the entire baby came out.”

Sounds like a team effort to me. An entire Mirabella team that included Jessica, Sal, Dante, Dominic and Sal’s parents.

While speaking of the birth, it was obvious that Officer Sal Mirabella is a trained police officer – one who helped Jessica and could help any Lexington woman in the same situation.“I took the baby. I wasn’t prepared. I had no resources whatsoever. I had nothing to suction the baby’s mouth or nose, no towels,” Sal said of the essential equipment. “There were several seconds of no screaming or breathing,” Sal said. “That’s when I got really nervous. I turned the baby upside down and started tapping his back.” Amazing instincts or great training? Maybe it’s both.

The tapping did the trick. Dominic has a healthy set of lungs and let out his first screams five or six seconds later. “I put the baby on Jessica’s chest and ran to get towels,” Sal said. He wiped him off and wrapped him warmly.

The doctor told Sal and Jessica it was normal, so don’t worry, Dominic is fine. “Sometimes you have to stimulate the baby to get them breathing,” Sal said.
Jessica said Dante was in bed with her before Sal got home. Jessica said he was saying: “It’s OK mama, feel better," Jessica said.

Sal’s parents immediately took him downstairs and Sal took over. During the interview, Dante, who was on speaker phone, tried to tell me how he comforted his mommy.

Jessica, cognizant of her son’s presence, tried to labor quietly, which is pretty near impossible for anyone who has ever given birth.

By this point of the story, it’s pretty clear this entire family really deserves a medal. Sal and Jessica were so involved in the birth of the baby they “still didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl.”

Eventually, when everything calmed down, they celebrated another son.
For now Sal’s off taking care of Jessica and the boys. “Jessica is getting rest,” Sal said. “She’s been great.”

Congratulations to the Mirabellas and “Thank you” to the Lexington Police Department for training our officers so well.

Let’s face it, if a police office can let his training kick in and birth his own child, residents don’t have much to worry about. I’d say these officers can – and do – deal with just about anything.

Theresa D'Antuono
Lexington MA Real Estate Agent
Lexington MA Area Homes For Sale
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