Teen Lifeguard Helps Deliver Baby At Pool
An 18 year old lifeguard is being hailed a hero after delivering a baby on a pool deck. Natalie Lucas, who’s been a lifeguard for 3 years, was working her morning shift at the YMCA of Northern Colorado when a woman’s water broke. Tessa Rider was nine months pregnant with her third child and a few days past her due date. Rider and her husband, Matthew Jones, were visiting their local Y — about five minutes from their home in Longmont, Colo. — for a swim on July 24.
The couple said they knew the baby was coming but didn’t know if it was going to be a week, two weeks, or today. Rider slipped into the pool at around 10:45 a.m. and said she felt a sense of complete relaxation but the 30 seconds of calm swiftly shifted to chaos. She said she suddenly felt the need to push. She instructed her husband who was scrolling casually on his phone on the pool deck to grab their things and meet at the car. That plan quickly went awry when she took two steps out of the pool and collapsed onto all fours with her water breaking as she hit the ground.
Within seconds, she felt a sensation that the baby was coming out. Lucas — who was the sole lifeguard on duty at the time — sprinted over and saw Jones rubbing his wife’s back while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. Jones told the teen “We’re having a baby,” and before he could give the 911 operator any details, he saw the baby crowning. Lucas said her adrenaline kicked in and she immediately grabbed towels and an emergency first-aid kit. She used a walkie talkie to alert other staff of the situation and asked a man who was swimming laps to call an ambulance. Rider, still on all fours, screamed and pushed as bystanders watched in disbelief. Lucas supported her head as Jones guided the baby out.
Lucas then sat back to back with Jones as she held her seconds-old son, Tobin “Toby” Thomas Rider. An ambulance arrived shortly after and paramedics gave baby Toby a clean bill of health.
The couple said Lucas was quick-thinking and calm, intuiting what they needed in real time.
“I would not have traded Natalie for anybody in that situation,” Jones said. “I’m just so thankful that she was a part of that, and that she supported us the way that she did. She really played her part perfectly, and was so sweet to us. I really, really appreciated her being there, and I’m glad she had that experience with us.”
Lucas said the experience was profoundly fulfilling and pointed out the irony is as a lifeguard, “you’re trained for death rather than life, so it was a very eye-opening experience.” In this case, rather than preventing death, she was helping to welcome new life. During her training and certification, Lucas learned how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid and water rescues. Helping someone give birth was certainly not a part of the curriculum.
