Mya’s Home Birth
Assisted by Five-year-old Brother
6#’s 5 oz’s

Five-Year-Old Boy Helps Mom Deliver Baby
November 3, 2004

OAKLAND, Calif. –A 5-year-old boy who aspires to be a doctor received some unexpected training as an obstetrician when he helped his mother deliver his baby sister.

Taru Mills woke up at 5 a.m. Oct. 15 and realized that it was time. She called 9-1-1 and many family members, and with keys and purse in hand attempted to get down the stairs of her East Oakland apartment. But now two-week-old Mya Daylene was impatient, and Mills had to turn to her son, Devon.

“(The baby) was crowning, and I just dropped to my knees and told Devon to get me some towels,” Mills told the Oakland Tribune.

A calm and composed Devon helped with the towels, kept the family cat, Smokey, out of the area, and held his mother’s hand while she pushed.

In a matter of minutes, Mya entered the world two weeks before her scheduled arrival, weighing six pounds and 15 ounces.

Mills said she was in a daze after the delivery, but Devon helped her snap out of it.

“He said, ‘Mom, the baby’s on the floor,’ and that just got me alert again and I picked the baby up. Devon kept me thinking straight, and he was very comforting.”

He then greeted the paramedics at the door, and rode in a car with a family friend as his mother and sister traveled in an ambulance to the hospital, where his accomplishment was the talk of the maternity ward.

“We all call him Dr. Devon now,” said Mills. “It was so amazing how he stayed so calm. Devon’s eyes were as big as his head, but he didn’t panic at all.”

The little hero had only a few words to say about his experience. He denied being scared and described his baby sister as looking “like chocolate.”

Asked if he now knew where babies came from, he simply said, “Yep. No storks.”