The Douglas County Sheriff's Office was called in to a home in Omaha, Nebraska, after an in-home birth went terribly wrong. Police were called only minutes after the baby was born, but sadly by then, it was too late.
The call was made in the early morning hours of March 13.
KETV obtained a copy of the call that was made on a police scanner and reports that the incident happened off of 180th and Fort streets. The names of the parents have yet to be revealed.
"You've got a newborn, born about 7 minutes ago,” an EMT can be heard saying in the call. The EMT said the newborn wasn’t breathing, before adding "they are trained in newborn CPR."
"Go ahead and send a second squad to this so we can just grab the baby and go,” the EMT added.
Few details are known of what happened during the home birth and it’s unclear if a midwife or other trained professional was at the home during the birth — although home births are legal.
Police merely said that of those who were at the home at the time, there were "those that may or may not be a medical professional," the sheriff’s office told the news outlet.
What is known is that the newborn didn’t survive.
"We want to know exactly why this child passed away,” Douglas County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Wayne Hudson told KETV.
Hudson said they are looking into “anybody that was present” at the home and that the investigation is ongoing.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told the news outlet that home births are legal in all 50 states, but “the problems come into play when you have someone who's assisting. And puts themselves out as a medical person,” he said.
In Nebraska, certified midwife nurses cannot perform a home birth.
The Nebraska State Legislature website states a nurse midwife must be under the guidance of a licensed doctor for a home birth.
Kleine told KETV that there are many loopholes in the current legislation regarding home births, but he hopes that this case will help close them.
"The county attorneys association is going to look into that as well as far as shoring up that statute also because there may be some confusion there as well because there is a lot of terminology used,” he explained.
Kleine said that if there was only a certified midwife at the birth, he or she could be charged with a felony under state law.
"There are certain licensing requirements that Health and Human Services has and obviously there’s a lot of danger in that if the person is not trained to do what they do," Kleine said.
It’s not clear what condition the mother of the newborn is currently in or what the official cause of death for the baby is. Police have also yet to file charges.
"Having a child at home, people can do that, it's not illegal, but certainly it carries with it there is some risk especially if things don’t go as planned,” Kleine noted.
