Boy, 9, Delivers His Baby Sister

H E S P E R I A, Calif., Feb. 22 -- When 28-year-old Jennifer Ajmal went into labor Feb. 14, she quickly paged her sister to drive her to the hospital and telephoned her mother to watch her three little boys.

But as the single mom found out, the baby was in a hurry, and she was already too late to get to the hospital. At that point, Ajmal's 9-year-old son, Christian Alarcon, took charge and called 911.

"My mom's having a baby and she needs help right now," the boy told the emergency dispatcher at the fire department.

But help didn't come in time. Within minutes, Christian was delivering his 9-pound, 1-ounce baby sister himself. At 1:44 a.m. on Valentine's Day, his little sister emerged from his mother's womb.

"Wet. Blood all over it," Christian said, describing the newborn. "No teeth. Little. Cute. Stuff like that."

For all involved, the delivery was a white-knuckled ride. Ajmal was home alone with three young sons, Christian, 6-year-old Michael and 2-year-old David, when her contractions started around 1:14 a.m. She showered and got the boys ready to go to their grandmother, but as Ajmal headed for the bathroom about 15 minutes later, she felt the baby's head crowning and had to lie on the floor.

On his own, Christian dialed 911. The dispatcher, John Holmes, could hear the mother screaming in the background.

"Her screaming rattled me," said Holmes, who works for the Victorville Fire Department. "Definitely, my adrenaline level was pretty high."

‘Mom! Relax! Relax!’

When Christian first got on the phone, Holmes asked the boy if he could see the baby, but all Christian could see was his mother's pain.

"No. But she's hurting bad!" Christian said during the 911 call.

"Yeah, I know she's hurting," Holmes said. "But you can now tell her to try and relax."

"Mom! Relax! Relax!" Christian shouted, then said, "She can't!"

For Ajmal, the stress of childbirth was compounded by the fact that she was home alone with her sons and feared for them.