Lincoln County Communications Director Tara Doe (right) presents dispatcher Anita Sprague with a Stork Award at the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16. On June 13, Sprague successfully helped deliver a baby girl by telephone before emergency medical services arrived on scene. (Charlotte Boynton photo)
Lincoln County Communications Director Tara Doe presented the Maine Emergency Medical Services for Children’s Program Stork Awards to dispatcher Anita Sprague during the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16 for successfully delivery a baby girl via telephone on June 13, 2022, prior to EMS arrival at the scene.
Maine EMS and Maine EMS for Children program recognizes individuals that perform a field delivery of a newborn baby with a stork pin, pink for female newborn and blue for male newborns. Individual’s eligibility includes EMS providers, public safety personnel, firefighters, police officers, and dispatchers when instructions are provided during the delivery by phone.
As part of the award, Sprague received a letter from Maine Emergency Services Program Manager Marc Minkler to recognize the high-quality of patient care she provided during the call.
On June 13, at approximately 4:57 p.m., the Lincoln County Communications Center received a 911 call from a woman in active labor. Sprague provided calming instructions, obtained, and relayed critical information, successfully delivering a newborn baby girl.
“The ability to not only be able to do this while the mother was outside in her driveway in a chaotic scene, and further complicated by the rarity of an en caul birth, also known as a ‘veiled birth’ your efforts, adaptability and instructions led to the successful delivery, all via telephone prior to EMS arrival,” Minkler said in the letter.
