Rookie cop began her first shift at 6 p.m. Six hours later, she delivered a baby

Kelsey Watson knew from a young age that she only wanted to be a police officer. Still, when she had the chance to earn a medical certificate in field delivery — emergency childbirth outside of a hospital — while studying criminal justice in college, Watson figured, why not?

“What’s a couple hours in class when you can be prepared for something like that?” she said.

It didn’t take long for that decision to pay off with a happy and healthy ending for a young Grayslake family.

Three days out of the police academy and about halfway through her very first shift as a Grayslake police officer, Watson delivered Ellowyn Bong-Dinovo into the world on Aug. 18.

Ellowyn’s mom, Lauren Bong-Dinovo, had been at the hospital Aug. 17, but was told to go home until her labor was further along. Her water broke around midnight, and it quickly became clear Ellowyn wasn’t waiting for a hospital room.

“I didn’t want to deliver at home, but there literally was no choice,” Bong-Dinovo said Thursday.

When the emergency call came across the radio at 12:37 a.m. Aug. 18, Watson and her field training officer, Joe Semple, were on patrol nearby. They headed to the home thinking they’d just be there to assist the paramedics also en route.

On the way, Watson casually mentioned her training in field delivery, so Semple handed her a pair of latex gloves just in case.

What they didn’t know at the time was that the ambulance crew was stuck behind a train on the wrong side of a rail crossing. And when the officers arrived first, there was no time to wait.

“When we got there, the dad (Michael Dinovo) was outside, and he yells, ‘She’s inside, and she’s giving birth,’” Watson recalled.

Inside the home, Ellowyn’s grandmother directed the officers to an upstairs bathroom, where they found Lauren on the floor and her baby on the way.

As she tucked one gloved hand under Ellowyn’s neck to give her support and another on her head to guide her out, Watson didn’t have time to consider the unexpected turn her first day on the job had taken.

“My thoughts were just on the mom and the baby,” she said. “My focus was to get her out sooner rather than later.”

That’s because the longer a field delivery takes, Watson noted, the better the chances of something — like the umbilical cord wrapping around the baby’s neck — going wrong.

But within just a few minutes, baby Ellowyn had been born into Watson’s arms. She wrapped the infant in a towel to keep her warm until paramedics arrived and helped Michael cut the cord before handing the newborn to her mother.

“As soon as she was fully delivered, (Ellowyn) was screaming, which was a great sign,” Watson said. “It was one of the best outcomes you could have for a delivery out in the field like that.”

Both Watson and Bong-Dinovo credit the other’s calm for navigating the stressful and potentially dangerous situation to an ideal outcome.

“It wasn’t until after she was born that the panic set in about all the things that could have gone wrong,” Bong-Divino said. “She did a great job of taking me through what we needed to do to get Ellowyn out into the world safely.

Only later did the family learn that Watson had been on the job for only hours before the special delivery.

“(Officer Watson) really just came in and took control of the situation,” Bong-Divino added. “It was like she’d been doing it forever.”

We meet again

Watson was able to reunite earlier this month with Ellowyn, along with her parents and big brothers Marek, 14, Camden, 4, and Paxton, 2, at the Grayslake police station.

The family brought along some specially decorated cookies to say thanks, but the star attraction was Ellowyn, who found herself back in Watson’s arms and posed for plenty of photos alongside her family and members of the police department.

“I love kids, so I was very excited just to hold her again,” Watson, 22, said.

Grayslake police Sgt. Steve Teschner, who was on scene to witness Watson in action Aug. 18 and coordinates field training of new officers, said delivering good work is the norm for the department, though not quite like this.

“It’s just not every day we have a new recruit deliver a baby within the first 6 hours of her first shift,” he wrote in an email. “To say we’re proud of Ofc. Watson’s actions that night would be an understatement.”

copsandcrime@dailyherald.com