HOLDEN, Maine — The birth certificate for Coral Anne Mae McAllister-Wallace, who was born Friday afternoon, lists a unique birthplace.
“It says on her birth certificate, ‘Facility: family vehicle,’” her mom, Old Town resident Mary Ellen McAllister-Wallace, said Sunday. “What else was I going to say.”
Mom and dad, husband Martin Wallace, and big brother Cody Smith were in a Subaru Outback en route to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth for the birth, when Coral Anne decided to arrive.
Mom was in the back seat of the station wagon going through labor pains but never said “pull over” to her husband. However, once she said she felt the baby’s head and pushed a little and it crowned he got the message and pulled the car over in the parking lot of G&M Variety Market on the Main Road. Her son was on the cellphone with midwife Suzanne Norgang but the signal was going in and out.
“My husband called 911 and jumped in the backseat,” Mary Ellen said. “My water broke and then you could see the baby’s head. He dropped the phone.”
Her husband told her the baby was blue and that “frightened me and I pushed and out she came,” Mary Ellen said. “She was absolutely perfect but she didn’t cry. You could see she was breathing and moving her fingers.”
Coral Anne weighted 8 pounds, 12½ ounces.
The three snuggled together in the backseat for a minute and then dad “thought to open the legs and said, ‘It’s a girl,’” Mary Ellen said. “He was yelling it out the window.”
Unbeknownst to her, a highly trained emergency medical technician with 20 years of experience had gotten into the front seat of the car while she was giving birth to make sure everything went smoothly.
“When I got there, the baby’s head was crowning and he [the dad] was delivering the baby,” Holden firefighter and EMT David Morrill said on Sunday. “He was the one who delivered the baby. I just assisted.”
Morrill, who owns the Squire convenience store across the street, heard the 911 call and ran to help out.
“They were both a lot cooler than I would have been in that situation,” he said. “I am very impressed with them. I’m just glad mom and baby are doing good.”
Morrill “just popped out of the middle of nowhere,” Mary Ellen said. “He was great.”
An unknown woman who stopped by the store just happened to have some baby blankets and a suction ball, which Morrill used to clear Coral Anne’s airways and wrap her up.
“Everyone was so wonderful,” the new mother said. “It was actually a marvelous experience.”
Her husband was absolutely incredible during the birth, Mary Ellen said, and even though she keeps telling him so, “he keeps saying, ‘I didn’t do anything but catch her.’”
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- Old Town resident Mary Ellen McAllister-Wallace (center) gave birth to Coral Anne Mae on Friday afternoon in the back seat of her station wagon in Holden with the help of her husband (right) Martin Wallace, big brother (left) Cody Smith, 15, and Holden firefighter-EMT David Morrill.
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