This Granddad Does More Than Boast--He Delivers

All grandfathers get to boast about their new grandchildren. But few get to brag that they helped deliver the newborn.

Barton Mathews, 56, of Anaheim was hurrying a pregnant Joanie Guajardo into a car Monday morning after her contractions quickened. He had packed clothing and supplies for her, expecting she would have an extended stay at UCI Medical Center’s labor and maternity ward.

But this baby wouldn’t wait for the 15-minute drive to the Orange hospital and was delivered in the driveway of the Mathewses’ West Goodhue Avenue home about 9:15 a.m.

“We got her going toward the car, and down to the driveway, and she said, ‘Something is coming!’ We laid her down and delivered the baby,� said Mathews, who is a licensed vocational nurse at a Garden Grove clinic.

His wife, Kathy, wrapped the newborn girl in towels just as paramedics and the baby’s father--their son, Barton Mathews Jr.--scrambled onto the driveway. The younger Mathews, 20, and Guajardo, 19, plan to get married, the grandfather said.

Young Mathews was on his way to school when he was paged from home.

“I knew she was having the baby,� he said. “I expected it about tonight, but it didn’t happen that way. This is great.�

Later, at the hospital, Mom and newborn, who weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches, were doing fine.

Meanwhile, the new grandfather, who delivered two babies in the 1960s while in the Army, was still feeling overwhelmed.

“It was very fast and tense,� he said. “I made sure the cord wasn’t wrapped around the neck. We used plastic bag ties to tie off the cord. And I suctioned her little nose a little. It was something I will never forget.�

The experience sent him back to work with a smile.

“There were no complications, thank God,� he said, adding that during the delivery, he kept thinking, “It’s going to be all right, it’s going to be all right.�

An excited Kathy Mathews described the newborn as very pink with brown hair. “She kind of looks like her mother, but it’s hard to tell because her face is all squinched up.�

The parents of the newborn hadn’t settled on a name by midafternoon Monday. One wanted Madison, the other, Dominique. Finally, about 4 p.m., Guajardo put the names together as Dominique Madison Mathews.