E. Moriches dad recounts delivering baby in car

The East Moriches dad who helped deliver his baby daughter Wednesday night at a Starbucks parking lot in Suffolk County says the family is doing just fine. Matt Dolber, 31, helped deliver Sailor Jewel

News 12 Staff

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Jul 1, 2016, 6:50 AM

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Updated 3,022 days ago

The East Moriches dad who helped deliver his baby daughter Wednesday night at a Starbucks parking lot in Suffolk County says the family is doing just fine.

Matt Dolber, 31, helped deliver Sailor Jewel Dolber in a Manorville parking lot when he couldn't get his wife to the hospital in time.

"When your wife is saying to you as you're driving, 'We're not going to make it,' What are you thinking?" Dolber asks. "Oh my god."

The family had just had a false alarm Saturday night when Dolber's wife, Casey, thought she might be going into labor. But just five minutes after leaving home Wednesday, it was the real thing.

Dolber called 911 and pulled over. The dispatcher explained to him how to deliver the newborn, and his 2-year-old son Chase watched from the back seat.

"Took my shirt off, wrapped the baby in my shirt, and then she told me to take my shoelace off and wrap the umbilical cord," Dolber says. "So I wrapped the umbilical cord."

Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and helped cut the cord. The family then went to the hospital, where Casey and the newborn are doing well.

Dolber says he has some advice for other fathers-to-be after the incident.

"Listen to your wife," he says. "No matter how much she drives you crazy...even if you've had a couple of false alarms...just go."

Since the delivery, Dolber's says his friends have taken to calling him by his initials -- M.D., also the abbreviation for medical doctor.