“Special Delivery”-Mother Gives Birth in Nursing Home Parking Lot

ALEXANDRIA/MARKSVILLE, La. (KALB) - Agnes Bradford has named her newborn daughter after the nursing home she was born at.

It’s not something you hear about every day, a baby being born in a nursing home parking lot. And it’s definitely not where Agnes Bradford thought she would give birth since she was scheduled to be induced on March 1.

Bradford says that she and her cousin, Jovaughn Augustine, were at Valley View Nursing Home in Marksville to visit a friend that works there. That friend came out to the vehicle that they were in and noticed that Bradford was in labor. She and other nursing home staff members turned their attention to Bradford in the parking lot, trying to rush her inside. “It happened so fast…when I got out of the truck, I bent down, I felt something coming,” she said. When they realized that they wouldn’t make it inside before the baby was born, they brought out supplies to put together a make-shift privacy curtain and delivered the baby in the parking lot.

The baby has named Ariana and been given the middle name “Valley” as a way to say “Thank You” to the staff at Valley View Nursing Home for their help in the special and unexpected delivery. And Bradford says she plans to tell her daughter the story about the day she was born and even take her to the nursing home where it happened.

Mother and baby were transported to Avoyelles Hospital from the nursing home. They were then transported to Rapides Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

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