Pregnant firefighter saves woman trapped in crashed car—then immediately gives birth

Pregnant firefighter Megan Warfield, 30, was nine months along when she was a passenger in a car that was involved in a multi-vehicle collision earlier this month. But thanks to being a Maryland firefighter, Warfield knew that her training in emergency response was needed, so she ignored the contractions she was experiencing and immediately set out to help.

This week, the new mom appeared on TODAY, where she told the story of how she initially planned to help direct traffic around the collision—but then she saw an overturned vehicle with a woman trapped inside.

“I started to climb in there with her, but then I was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re nine months pregnant,'” Warfield explained. “I ended up holding onto her to keep her in place because I wasn’t sure of her injuries at the time. It was also important that I keep her calm. It was a pretty traumatic event.”

Warfield stayed with the woman until paramedics arrived and took over, then headed to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore because she figured she should get herself checked out after the crash. That’s where she learned that all the excitement had induced labor, as well as knocked her baby into a traverse (or sideways) position.

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“I don’t know how I did what I did because the cramping was so bad,” Warfield explained. “I must’ve just been running on adrenaline.”

Luckily, medical staff at the hospital were able to help, and Warfield and her boyfriend, Joshua Daugherty, welcomed their healthy baby girl less than 24 hours after the crash. They named her Charlotte, and she joins a 6-year-old sister named Ellie and a 5-year-old brother named Jameson.

Related: College grad gives birth and receives diploma hours later during hospital ceremony

And as if that story isn’t plenty exciting enough, there’s another fun twist in this tale: Daugherty, Warfield’s boyfriend, works as a paramedic, and was one of the first to arrive on the scene of the crash.

Baltimore County’s emergency medical services ended up transporting six people to two local hospitals, according to a spokesperson. All injuries were minor, and everyone involved in the crash was—thankfully—expected to be just fine.

In a Facebook post, Warfield’s department congratulated her for being a “true public servant” in the line of duty.

“Ignoring any chance she could be injured, Megan immediately exited her mangled vehicle and began providing care to a person trapped by their overturned car,” the post explains. “Megan stayed with this patient until Squad 213 arrived to free the victim. After all patients were evaluated, Megan agreed to an evaluation herself. Less then 24 hours later, Megan delivered her beautiful baby girl. Since no good deed should go unrecognized, we wanted to highlight Megan’s heroic and selfess actions.”

Congratulations to Megan Warfield and her family on their very exciting new arrival!