Firefighter Adopts Baby He Delivered on the Job

On Nov. 14, 2011, firefighter Marc Hadden got a call that a woman was complaining of severe abdominal pain. When he and other firefighters arrived, they realized that the woman was in labor, and didn’t even have time to get her to a hospital before her baby girl was born.

Seconds after the birth, Hadden administered emergency oxygen to help the infant, whom they named Rebecca Grace, begin breathing on her own.

Later at the hospital, the birth mother, a single mom who was raising a teenage son, made it clear she wouldn’t be able to care for her daughter and that she was putting her up for adoption. Hadden and his wife, Beth, had wanted a third child for years but were prepared to go through the process of adoption due to complications with Beth’s first two pregnancies.

The next day, Beth visited the birth mother at the hospital, and the two spoke before a doctor arrived to tell the mother they were ready to move forward with the adoption process.

“Suddenly the opportunity was there for me to say that Marc and I had been praying about adoption for years,” Beth told People. “And she looked over at me and said, ‘I want you to adopt my baby.’ She had the nurse bring her in and I was able to hold Gracie for the first time. I called Marc and said, ‘I think we just had a baby.’”

The couple signed temporary-custody papers by the end of the day and brought Grace home 48 hours after she was born.

“She is what we prayed for,” Beth said. “It felt like winning the lottery.”

Today, Grace is part of their family, but Hadden shared that he and Beth have always been open with her about where she came from, with Hadden even taking her to the back of the ambulance where she was born. Grace even tells people, “my daddy delivered me in the back of an ambulance.”

“I’ve always wanted a daughter, and this is just amazing,” he said.

Photo Credit: Facebook / Marc Hadden