Baby boy born at Goose Island fire station

Captain Barb Ohse’s background as a nurse came in handy Tuesday morning when a woman in labor came to her fire station asking for help.

The woman was on her way to the hospital about 8:50 a.m. when she pulled over to the fire station in the 1100 block of West Chicago Avenue, Chicago Fire Dept. spokesman Larry Merritt said.

Her water broke almost an hour earlier, Ohse said.

“One of the officers at the front desk called overhead on the speaker and said ‘There’s a baby coming,’” Ohse said at a new conference.

Ohse rushed to the woman in the backseat of her vehicle.

“We advised her not to push; we told her the ambulance was on the way,” Ohse said. “But sometimes nature takes over and things happen.”

The healthy baby boy was born minutes later, Ohse said. She said he seemed as small as a “peanut.”

Even though Ohse had been with the fire department for almost 20 years, she felt prepared to deliver the baby despite the initial chaos.

“It’s funny how your training comes into play and you remember all those things they tell you ... and all those things flood back into your head,” she said.

The baby and mother were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Merritt said.