— When Utah Highway Patrol sergeant Cade Brenchley started his shift this week, he didn’t know he’d be pulling double duty. But his first call was a mother in distress on the side of a highway, already well into labor with twins.
The couple, who asked for their names not to be released, were 75 miles from the nearest hospital when they had to pull over and call for help. Residents of Wendover, Utah, on the state’s western border, they were driving to a Salt Lake City hospital but couldn’t make it. Brenchley rushed over as soon as he got the call.
In a report airing on TODAY Thursday, he told NBC News: “I came upon them and there they were by themselves in a little Honda Accord. I walked up and she was in the front passenger seat and had one baby in her arms wrapped up in a towel.”
The patrol car’s dash-cam was rolling, and the mother can be heard saying, “My water just broke on the other one!”
Brenchley hadn’t expected twins. He said to the mother, “You have another one ready to come out? I'm going to get my first aid kit.” Thanks to the father and the dispatch operator, the baby boy was already out with his umbilical cord tied off with a shoelace.
"The mother was a real trooper — for lack of a better word — for holding on to this baby and then getting ready to have the second one," Brenchley said. On the dash-cam recording, he can be heard encouraging the mother: “If you need to push, go ahead and push.”
Only 10 minutes after Brenchley arrived on the scene, baby No. 2, a little girl, was ready to make her debut. The mother can be heard saying, “Something is coming out!”
Brenchley said, “It just came right out and I had my gloves on and caught the baby and checked the airway with my pinky finger." She soon started crying, to Brenchley's relief.
“I kind of held her up face-down, and a little breeze came in the door and her arms went like this (Brenchley raised his arms) and she let out a good healthy cry."
Though troopers are trained to handle highway deliveries, Brenchley has also had his share of practical experience; a father of four, he’s been present during his wife’s own labor.
“It's a little bit different emotion, obviously, when they’re your own children versus somebody else’s,” he told NBC News. “But it's still a neat experience helping bring a child into this world.”
And Brenchley was certainly a good coach. After the labor, the dash-cam picked him up telling the new mother of twins, “Good job, mom."
According to Brenchley, mom and babies Miguel and Jocelyn are all doing well. The twins are the couple’s fifth and sixth children.