Soldier gets crash course in fatherhood                                          Susanne Kappler      Leader Staff

Ava Wadkins is too young to understand the meaning of Father’s Day, but for her dad, Sgt. David Wadkins, this Sunday will be special. Wadkins, a human resource specialist with the 120th Adjutant General Battalion (Reception), delivered his baby May 15 in the family’s car just outside the hospital. Ava, the couple’s first child, was not expected until June 3, so when Wadkins’ wife Rachel started having contractions around 8 that morning, he was, at first, skeptical. “Contractions, they come and go,” Wadkins said. This time, though, the contractions did not go away, and the expecting parents were on the way to Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital an hour later. “I got in the car about 9 o’clock, by the time 9:10 rolled around we get to Bull Street. Her water broke and she was saying, ‘The baby’s coming.’ And I said. ‘No, it’s going to be all right. We’re almost there,’” Wadkins remembered. He pulled into the parking garage, but his wife was adamant that she wouldn’t make it, so they decided to go straight to the emergency room, which was just down the road. “As soon as we pull out of the parking garage, the (baby’s) head’s already out,” Wadkins said. When he arrived in front of the emergency room a short time later, he found the entrance obstructed by construction. “I pulled in, put the car in park, and (the construction workers) were yelling, ‘You can’t park here,’ I said, ‘My wife’s going into labor. I’ve got to do something,’” he recalled. He hurried inside to let the doctors know what was going on and ran back to the car to help his wife. “As soon as I got there the rest of my baby’s coming out, so I just grabbed her, and I wasn’t sure what to do at first,” he said. “So I just kind of held her, and I tilted her up, and when I tilted her up she kind of gurgled and then she started crying.” Within two minutes, the doctors and nurses arrived on the scene and took control of the situation. Since Ava was born three weeks prematurely, she had to stay in the hospital for 10 days, but both mother and baby are doing great, the proud father said. Wadkins credited his 10-year military experience with keeping his cool during the ordeal, but admits that he was not entirely prepared for the situation. “My wife had teased me about reading up on delivering at home or in the car. I said, ‘No, we’ll be all right. We’ll make it to the hospital,’” he said while laughing. “But, sure enough, I didn’t read anything. I probably could have used a little bit of information that was in those books.” Although Wadkins admitted that –– given the choice –– he would have opted for a less dramatic delivery, he will always cherish the memory. “That’s always going to be something special for me, ’cause I actually got to deliver my daughter,” he said. “That’s one thing you can never forget. All I wanted to do was cut the umbilical cord.”