Lance Winter
WIMBERLEY — Newborn Bennett Harvey wasn’t waiting for his parents to reach the birthing center. Instead, he made his debut in a parking lot.
Derek Harvey and Taylor Harvey had barely left their Woodcreek neighborhood when a strong contraction made Taylor worry they wouldn’t finish the drive to San Marcos. By the time they reached the bridge over the Blanco River, worry had become certainty.
Derek said that his wife told him, “Pull over, this baby’s coming out.”
Minutes later, a Wimberley parking lot became an unexpected delivery room, with two paramedics helping the couple welcome their second son.
For Derek, the trip had started with a phone call to Luminary, the San Marcos birthing center where the couple planned to deliver. Taylor’s water had broken and he called to let the team know. As her contractions intensified, he called again before they headed out.
Then came the contraction just outside their neighborhood.
“I don’t want to have this baby on the side of the road,” Derek recalled Taylor saying.
He switched on his emergency flashers and continued toward town, but Bennett’s arrival was moving faster than their drive.
After Taylor told him to stop, Derek pulled into the parking lot near the Hays County Precinct 3 offices. Two women were outside a nearby nail salon and he quickly got their attention and asked them to call 911.
“I just went into action,” he said.
Wimberley Emergency Medical Services paramedics Adrian Castillo and Michael Afflerbach arrived within minutes, Derek estimated. The baby was already crowning.
There was no time to continue to the birthing center. There also was no reason to move Taylor, Afflerbach said. She was positioned well inside the car and Derek was beside her, ready to help.
“Once we saw the baby crowning, you already know it’s imminent,” Afflerbach said.
The paramedics prepared their equipment and stayed ready for complications. Castillo said his attention was on getting both mother and baby safely through the delivery.
“Michael and I had everything prepared and ready, just in case something was to happen,” he said. “We were prepared.”
About five minutes after the paramedics arrived, Bennett was born.
“Textbook birth,” Afflerbach said. “I mean, it was perfect.”
The moment brought another surprise. The Harveys had waited until the birth to learn whether their baby was a boy or a girl.
EMS Chief Cathy Montgomery described the discovery as Taylor brought the newborn to her chest.
“Oh, it’s a boy,” she recalled the parents saying, which they noted added another boy to the family.
For Castillo, who has worked in EMS since 2021, the birth marked a different kind of first. Although he had been involved in childbirth calls before, this was his first delivery relying on his partner and the resources they carried.
He called it one of the highlights of his career — so far.
Afflerbach, a paramedic since 2020 and a father of four, had participated in his own children’s births with midwives. Still, helping welcome a healthy newborn on an emergency call offered a side of the job he seldom experiences.
“It’s very rare we get to see this side of things,” he said.
Montgomery said emergency crews more often meet families when someone is sick, injured or grieving. This call gave them the chance to share in a joyful moment — and to support a mother doing the hardest work.
“Mom is the one that’s actually doing the work,” Montgomery said.
The chief credited teamwork amongst Taylor, Derek and the paramedics, who were ready to intervene if the delivery did not go as expected.
Derek also praised the Luminary team, who he said arrived about three minutes after the paramedics and joined in caring for Taylor and Bennett.
“They were super professional and very kind,” he said of the paramedics. “We were so happy that they were there.”
Looking back, Derek is still struck by how smoothly an unplanned parking lot delivery unfolded.
The destination changed, but the outcome was everything the Harveys had hoped for.
Mother, baby and the rest of the family are healthy and doing well, Derek said — with a new little brother and a birth story they won’t soon forget.
