--- title: Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Just Before Giving Birth description: A doctor in Kentucky delivered a baby after she heard the screams of the expectant mother while waiting to give birth herself. canonical: https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/ author: Rachel Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-31T12:27:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:01.413Z og:title: Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Just Before Giving Birth og:description: A doctor in Kentucky delivered a baby after she heard the screams of the expectant mother while waiting to give birth herself. og:url: https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8423c3247b82bcc/6988d7bd4ee26234f130e5f3/pregnant-obgyn-delivery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Pregnant woman in hospital gown og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Just Before Giving Birth twitter:description: A doctor in Kentucky delivered a baby after she heard the screams of the expectant mother while waiting to give birth herself. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8423c3247b82bcc/6988d7bd4ee26234f130e5f3/pregnant-obgyn-delivery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Minutes Before Her Own Contractions Start > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c6fd4a1b-dced-4d0a-b82f-ce0e599355f9&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Jul 31, 2017 12:27 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Jul 31, 2017 12:27 PM UTC A doctor in [Kentucky](http://time.com/4768488/college-student-kentucky-ducts-steal-exam-papers/) delivered a baby while covering for her hospital’s on-call obstetrician – and then promptly give birth herself. Amanda Hess, an [OBGYN](http://motto.time.com/4702564/fertility-treatments-ivf/) at the Frankfort Regional Hospital, [told WKYT](http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Frankfort-doctor-437036133.html) that the on-call doctor was on his way back to the hospital, so there was no time to spare when the patient, Leah Halliday Johnson, was dilated. “I had actually taken a call the day before, so I thought really that I was working up to the last minute. But this was literally ’til the last second,” Dr. Hess [told LEX 18](http://www.lex18.com/story/35988436/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house). She added that her own contractions started just minutes after taking the call. “I just put on another gown to cover up my backside and put on some boots over my shoes, to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room and I knew her,” Hess told WKYT. “She was just glad to be able to get to push and have the baby out and not have to wait any longer.” Dr. Hess later went on to give birth to a healthy baby girl, reports WKYT. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/"},"headline":"Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Minutes Before Her Own Contractions Start","datePublished":"2017-07-31T12:27:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:01.413Z","description":"The on-call doctor was away at the time","url":"https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Kentucky","Childbirth","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8423c3247b82bcc/6988d7bd4ee26234f130e5f3/pregnant-obgyn-delivery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8423c3247b82bcc/6988d7bd4ee26234f130e5f3/pregnant-obgyn-delivery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pregnant woman in hospital gown","caption":"Pregnant woman in hospital gown","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4880334/pregnant-doctor-delivers-baby-minutes-before-her-own-contractions-start/","name":"Pregnant Doctor Delivers Baby Minutes Before Her Own Contractions Start"}}]}] ```