Place of birth: (Ford) ambulance. A true story.
A peek at the people in a 1-minute film debuting on Mother's Day
After 22 years, memories of that Chicago traffic jam remain vivid.
It was a Tuesday afternoon in late April. Christie Edwards knew she was in trouble.
Her severe cramps kept getting worse. And I-290 was bumper to bumper, at a standstill. She was trying desperately to get from Chicago’s southside to a suburban hospital near her parents’ home in Oak Park.
Edwards decided her only hope was to take side streets. She called her midwife to explain the pain and was met with, “Wait, Christie, are you in active labor and driving to the hospital?” Edwards pulled over, dialed 911 and said, “I’m about to have a baby!’”
The 911 operator asked, ‘Where are you?’ I said, “I’m at Madison and California. Now I’m at Madison and San Francisco … ’ And the operator said, ‘Wait, are you still moving?!’”
Edwards pulled over to the side of the road, put her Chevy Trailblazer in park and put the driver’s seat all the way back. It was around 2:30 p.m. and she spotted a crossing guard. So Edwards honked her horn, rolled down the window, waved for attention. The crossing guard ran to the car. Edwards gave the car keys and her cell phone to the stranger, who called Edwards husband. “She’ introducing herself. ‘This is Mary.’ I’m with her right now. I’ll call when she gets into the ambulance.’”
The crossing guard helped flag down the ambulance, then drove the Trailblazer behind the ambulance.
The healthcare consultant, now 50 — a former professional dancer on scholarship to the (Alvin) Ailey Dance School and once employed there — said she had dreamed of giving birth to beautiful music and burning candles in a relaxing birthing pool.
But no.
“Sirens are on. They’re taking vitals and asking me all this information,” Edwards told Shifting Gears. “I start bearing down. My body is on autopilot. The paramedic said, ‘Stop pushing!’ I said, ‘I can’t help it. She’s coming. This is not how it’s supposed to be. But my body’s gonna do what my body’s gonna do.’ We pull up to the hospital parking lot, and, by this time, I’d had her.”
Her birth certificate lists place of birth as “paramedics” and facility as “ambulance.”
Now that little girl, a pre-med and public health student, graduates next week.
Estimates suggest thousands of babies in the U.S. each year are born with the help of paramedics, who call these pre-hospital births — which occur in the home, en route to the hospital or in a hospital driveway.
Various countries have studied this phenomenon. A Swedish study in 2020 referred to the experience as “tumultuous” and emphasized the value of first responder training to protect the health and safety of mother and child.
What first responders drive
Today an estimated 53% of emergency vehicles nationwide are built by Ford, including ambulances and police vehicles, according to recent data compiled by Ford.
Note: “Ford ambulance” refers to a Ford-manufactured chassis cab and powertrain with an ambulance upfit by an independent supplier. Ford does not design or manufacture ambulances but they do carry the Ford nameplate.
So the Dearborn automaker decided to make a video titled, “Born in a Ford” that debuts on Sunday, May 10. Mother’s Day. Edwards is featured in that video.
Note: When I first talked to Edwards for this story, I asked about her childbirth experience and then asked, “How is Ford involved?” She said, “The ambulance was a Ford.” She told me that women, not just trucks, are built Ford Tough.
The video, created by the automaker’s marketing company WPP, will run on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The final message on screen: “When every second counts. America counts on Ford. The first choice for first responders.”
One paramedic, six babies
Rich Fink, 43, of Greenville, Pennsylvania, spent most of his life as a firefighter and paramedic. He has helped deliver six babies before reaching hospitals.
When he responded to an ad seeking paramedics who had delivered babies, he said he was sure it must have been an identity theft scam. It wasn’t. Telling his story with Ford, he said, was an honor.
When Ford asked if he knew what kind of ambulances the company used, Fink said two Fords and Chevy, but the Chevy was broke down.
A paramedic’s relationship with the ambulance is uniquely important because they’re working 12-hour and sometimes even 24-hour shifts.
“That ambulance is our home,” Fink told Shifting Gears. “I worked in Youngstown, the inner city EMS. That truck was our sanctuary, our office. We knew no matter what happened, when you got that person into that vehicle, everything would be under control. You build a relationship with these ambulances, relying on them to keep you and your partner safe.”
Noise reduction and soundproofing, for example, is critical in ambulances.
“When I’m talking to a partner and the patient, road noise can affect patient care. If we have a victim in a bad car accident, we’re trying to listen to lung sounds to decide whether they have a collapsed lung,” said Fink, whose wife is an ER nurse.
“If I can’t hear lung sounds clearly, I can’t determine whether to do needle chest decompression, where we put a needle into the chest that allows pressure to be taken off the lung and heart. The lung can collapse and it could cause respiratory issues or fill the chest cavity with blood. But you never want to do the procedure unless it’s truly needed. Technology in ambulances really matters.”
A private detail revealed offscreen
When talking with Fink, he explained that he doesn’t keep the paramedic pace he once did since being in a horrible car accident in 2020. An 83-year-old woman ran a stop sign and Fink crashed his Ford F-150 into her. She died instantly. The pickup truck saved Fink, doctors said. He shared that tidbit with Ford executives when filming the video, and his gratitude for life.
“One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do in my life is deliver babies,” Fink said. “It becomes a pretty complex situation because you went from having one patient to having two patients. Mom has a lot of post-labor follow up things and you need to make sure that baby is healthy, happy, warm and crying.”
He’ll forever remember calling a hospital and asking for additional staff in the ambulance bay to help with his arrival. “There’s probably 15 people and they start clapping for me and the mother.”
While he cherishes that memory, “the focus was still on mama and baby, because that truly is what mattered,” Fink said.
Ads that don’t sell a product to consumers
Ford Motor Co. is taking a chance with this campaign.
When they work, it’s brilliant. Too often, companies fail to execute as hoped, said Bob Kolt, professor emeritus of advertising at Michigan State University.
“These types of campaigns are not often done because there’s a risk that it’s outside of the normal advertising formula of showing the brand and the product and maybe the price and all of that,” Kolt said. “The only thing Ford is trying to do is really touch an emotion. If people feel connected, to a product or brand, it could pay off.”
The strategy is simple, said Michael Cope, the son of a paramedic and a senior director of consumer marketing communications at Ford in Dearborn: Ford believes it has a mission to enable human capability.
“In this campaign, we’re just showing a real story,” he said. “These aren’t actors. These are real people … How many people are born in ambulances throughout the country? It’s a number that’s bigger than you think.”
Female consumers demand authenticity
Shampaigne Graves, a women’s consumer expert and owner of Women’s Research Solutions consulting based in Dallas, Texas, is known for “why women buy” insights.
She has worked with Ford in the past on sustainability projects though is not involved with the “Born in a Ford” campaign.
“I would say that Ford is intentional and mission forward. I think the Ford campaign works for Ford specifically,” Graves said. “This could come across as hokey or inauthentic or the brand trying to play on consumer emotions. Women know if the messaging or branding isn’t coming from a place of authenticity.”
Spotlighting women giving birth reveals a connection, she said. “Women like to see a reflection of themselves in advertising and the media.”
The video “Born in a Ford” debuts on Sunday, April 10: Mother’s Day. Watch it here.
Editor’s Note: Shifting Gears obtained permission from Ford to share the video a day before its official release.
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I’m honored to be part of The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative — sort of a Heartland version of the New York Times, featuring political analysis, features and news.
My daughter just made it to the hospital in late January to deliver her second child. They barely got the gown on her when she had to push. It was a harrowing drive for her and her hubby on I-380 that morning. They’d just dropped off their son at daycare and dropped off is not an exaggeration. If they’d done their normal drop-off that baby would have been born on the interstate
Thank goodness for that crossing guard! And ambulance drivers and EMTs.
And thank you for sharing this story (and Ford Mother’s Day video).