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OREM — Most of the time a knock at the door of your home means a salesperson or someone you're expecting has arrived. But a knock on the door turned an Orem home into a make-shift hospital.
Candice Rieske teaches piano lessons. She was waiting for a student Saturday morning when she heard a knock on the door. It wasn't a piano student.
"I opened the door and there's a lady standing there holding a baby that was newborn, covered in goop, had the placenta connected with the umbilical cord," she explained. "So I yelled back to my husband to call 911."
With no medical training, Rieske and her husband had no idea what to do, especially since the baby's umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck. Step by step, they followed the emergency dispatcher's instructions.
"I'm running to get towels and I'm running to get pillows and I'm running to help lay her down," Rieske said. Finally, help arrived. That's when the Rieskes realized the woman had given birth just a few feet away from their front door.
"Right by the mailbox outside on the sidewalk," Rieske said.
She said the woman who gave birth actually lives next door on the busy street. A passerby noticed her and the baby at the mailbox and helped her to the Rieske's front door for help.
The mother and baby were still in the hospital Sunday night but both were doing well.
