Officers help mom deliver baby on porch as it snows — then learn she’s having triplets

Helena Wegner
·3 min read
95

Officers helped a 24-year-old mom in labor deliver a baby on her neighbor’s front porch in Colorado.

Then they learned she was having triplets.

Police found the woman in pain on a porch as it snowed and rained at about 3:30 a.m. April 18, the Greeley Police Department said in a Facebook post.

Tiffany Leonard had been staying at her mom’s house when she had a “super bad contraction,” her boyfriend and the father of the triplets, Eric Mayeda, told McClatchy News on April 26.

Her phone was dead, and she didn’t want to wake anyone up, so she started to walk to her neighbor’s house about a block away, Mayeda said.

That’s when she knew the babies were coming.

Leonard was able to make it to her neighbor’s front door and knock. They woke up and called 911 for her, Mayeda said.

When officers got to the home and waited for medical responders to arrive with an ambulance, Leonard delivered her first baby.

Officers help mom deliver baby

One officer found bread ties to cut the baby’s umbilical cord while another officer got blankets and towels from a neighbor.

Police said a third officer used the bread ties to cut the cord while a fourth officer rushed the baby to a warm patrol vehicle.

The child was turning blue and stopped breathing so the officer performed CPR on him and did chest compressions, police said.

Medical responders took the child into the ambulance, police said. The second baby boy was then born and also put in the ambulance.

Meanwhile, Mayeda got a call from the neighbor.

“Your babies are being born on my front porch!” Mayeda recalled him saying.

The two babies were taken to a hospital as the mom was put in a second ambulance.

Leonard delivered the third baby by cesarean section, police said.

Babies being cared for in NICU

Police said all three baby boys had “strong heartbeats” and were put in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The babies are named:

  • Burt Isao Leonard-Mayeda, born at 3:26 a.m., weighing 1.23 pounds.

  • Kikutaro Alan Leonard-Mayeda, born at 3:30 a.m., weighing 2.18 pounds.

  • Billy Bob Leonard-Mayeda, born at 4:20 a.m., weighing 1.94 pounds.

Mayeda said the babies will remain in the NICU for the next four to six months, depending on how they are doing. However, “they are doing great” now, and so is their mom, he said.

They were originally due July 25, but the couple knew they would come earlier, Mayeda said. However, they didn’t expect the babies to come “at complete randomness, with no warning whatsoever,” he said.

“We are both very fortunate to have great support systems to help with our 3 sons when they finally get to come home,” Mayeda said in a GoFundMe raising money for medical bills and supplies.

Greeley is about a 60-mile drive northeast from Denver.

Baby’s first NFL game? Woman gives birth in stadium during electric Browns-Colts game

Pregnant woman ‘vibing’ at Las Vegas music festival goes into labor weeks early

McDonald’s baby shower for ‘Little Nugget’? Couple celebrates after bathroom birth

Mom sees plea for liver transplant states away. Now baby has ‘full life ahead of her’