Baby chooses Fremd High School parking lot over hospital as birthplace

A baby chose a high school parking instead of a maternity ward as its birthplace Monday evening when the newborn's mother couldn't make it all the way to the hospital and had to stop at Fremd High School in Palatine just before a girls supersectional basketball game.

The 29-year-old mom was driving with her father to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights when they realized they weren't going to get there in time, said Sarah McKillop, services supervisor for the Palatine Fire Department.

Fremd was clearly a populated place in the early evening, with its parking lot full because of the basketball game. The woman and her father pulled into the fire lane and awaited the arrival of the paramedics, who were called at 6:42 p.m.

The baby had other ideas and was born by the time help arrived.

The child, whose gender was not included on the ambulance report, was quickly taken to the hospital along with the mother, McKillop said.

Paramedic calls for births on the way to the hospital aren't a common occurrence, she said.

"I would tell you this doesn't happen very regularly," McKillop said.

"We are glad Fremd High School could serve as a safe and convenient location for such a momentous occasion," Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 Director of Communications Erin Holmes said. "We offer our best wishes to the family."