Corporal helps bring child into the world

[thedrifter]

Corporal helps bring child into the world
December 20,2003
MATT DEES
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Cpl. Steven Bauford, Jr., had the camera ready to document the birth of his first child. But he had to get some clean towels and a shoestring first.

Not only did Bauford, 20, snap shots of Sierra Elise's debut on Earth, he also had the task of making sure the introduction went smoothly.

Bauford's girlfriend, Erika Nicholson, had been experiencing pains all day Thursday.

She thought it was constipation. Turns out it was labor.

At about 3 p.m. Thursday, she drew a warm bath hoping to get some relief.

She felt something.

"I looked up, and I saw the baby's head," Bauford said Friday at Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital.

"I said, 'Well, you're having the baby right now. And you ain't going to make it to the hospital.'"

Calmly but with an understandable rush of adrenaline, Bauford called 911. Dispatchers quickly transferred the call to an obstetrician at Naval Hospital.

Nicholson, 23, lay on the floor, as Bauford got the towels, shoestring (to tie off the umbilical cord) and the camera.

With the phone held between his shoulder and ear, Bauford helped guide the baby out with his left hand as he snapped away with his right.

"They said, 'Can you see her shoulders?'" Bauford said, cradling his day-old daughter and beaming.

"Just as they said that the whole baby came out."

Both Bauford and Nicholson handled the stressful situation like a troop carrying out a mission. Bauford is a corporal in the Marine Corps, and Nicholson is a Navy seaman.

"I had the shakes," Bauford said, laughing. "But she didn't scream or make any noise. I just kept telling her she was doing OK."

"It went by too fast for me," Nicholson said.

"I just thought I had to go to the bathroom. Next thing I know, she was out."

Mother and child are doing fine. The pictures will be developed soon.


Contact Matt Dees at mdees@jdnews.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 239.


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Sempers,

Roger