Surprise Mother’s Day delivery

UNION, Miss. (WTOK) - “A normal Sunday in Union; it’s quiet, laid back. We start at 6:00 o’clock in the morning.”

But this past Sunday, Mother’s Day, was anything but normal for Union Police Officer Brittany Vallas.

“We had not one call all morning,” said Vallas. “It was probably 8:15, 8:30, and our dispatcher put it out over the radio that we had a mom whose water has broken and she was in active labor.”

It was then that this particular Mother’s Day became one this officer of 14 years would never forget.

And as for the mom, Jessica Hollaway, she quickly realized her day was becoming more than she bargained for. Although her contractions had started earlier that morning, they were only 5 minutes apart. So, she spent some time in the tub to help ease her pains.

“Their daddy came and helped me to get out,” said Hollaway. “I sat on the edge of the bathtub and my water broke. And he was like, you gotta get out. I was like, I can’t move. And I was like, you just got to call the ambulance.”

Luckily, Officer Vallas was only a couple of minutes away.

“I went and wasn’t expecting the baby to actually be, literally, almost in the palm of my hands,” said Vallas. “She was pushing. I went in and the first thing I could think of was don’t push, like no. No, no, no, no, no, don’t, don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t do that.”

But baby Arabella was determined to be born. When she was delivered there was nothing to suction the babies mouth so Vallas worked to clear her airway. Vallas said when she heard her first cry, she thought “O.K., so she’s going to be O.K.”

Officer Vallas said if it weren’t for her dispatcher, Daniel Alexander, the call would not have gone so smoothly.

“He is not giving himself enough credit for this,” said Vallas, when speaking of Alexander.“If it were not for him that I wouldn’t have been able to do that by myself.”

Arabella Renee Wilcher was born healthy and happy at 7 pounds and 20 1/2 inches. And despite her exciting entry into the world, her mom says she’s a calm baby.

“She’s good. She’s very quiet, content. She doesn’t really cry unless she is, you know, hungry,”said Hollaway.

Officer Vallas is a part-time officer. Her full-time job is a lab tech working towards being a medical assistant. When asked if she would consider moving into a career delivering babies...

“No, no, I do not want to deliver babies for a living. Not at all. It was amazing. It was an experience that I would never forget, especially being on Mother’s Day. But that is not something I would like to do every day,” Hollaway said.

Officer Vallas said it feels good knowing that, even though she was just doing her job, she had a part to play in helping bring this new life into the world.

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