Doorbell camera catches California woman giving birth in front yard

VACAVILLE, Calif. — Newborns are impatient. When it’s time to be born, they are ready. Whether it’s at a hospital or not does not matter to them.

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A California woman experienced that scenario last week. Emily Johnson, of Vacaville, did not have enough time to make it to the hospital. Instead, her delivery room was the front yard of her home, and it was caught on her doorbell camera, KCRA reported.

“I joke that I was like a cow giving birth in the field because once I got to the hospital, I had grass clippings falling right off me and the nurses were wiping dirt off my knee and I’m like, ‘Oh, I did give birth in the lawn,’” Johnson told the television station. “I never want to do that again.”

Johnson began having contractions on Nov. 4, which was a week before her due date, according to KCRA. Even when the contractions were coming 10 minutes apart for three hours, she said she was not concerned because the hospital was only about five minutes from their home.

But Thomas Johnson was impatient and was ready to enter the world. Emily Johnson’s contractions came fast and furious.

“(They) went from three minutes to two minutes to one minute in a matter of 20 to 30 minutes, and we are like, ‘Oh, we got to get into the car we have to go,’” Emily Johnson told KCRA.

Emily Johnson and her husband, Michael Johnson, left the home and walked down the driveway, but she stopped.

“We got to the car and I just said, ‘No, I can’t get into this car,’” Emily Johnson told KCRA. “I’m just like, ‘I’m going to get on the grass, I’m going to be here. This is my spot.’”

Emily Johnson’s mother, Kristy Sparks, pulled up at that moment, People reported. She was going to meet her grandson under the skies.

Rescue crews arrived shortly afterward.

“By the time they walked up to me, I had a baby in my arms crying,” Sparks told KCRA. “It was unreal.”

It was even more unreal after the new parents realized the birth had been caught on their doorbell camera.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be on the camera,’” Michael Johnson told KCRA. “I’m going to watch this and we share this.”

Fortunately, the footage was not graphic, as the couple and newborn were several feet from the front door.

“I’m just thankful that I was facing in that direction because otherwise, I don’t think we’d be able to share the video footage with anybody,” Emily Johnson told KCRA.

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