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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992                   TAG: 9202010305
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE                                LENGTH: Short

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IT'S SPECIAL DELIVERY IN HOSPITAL PARKING LOT

A Dale City man, driving his pregnant wife to Potomac Hospital, had to stop at one red light too many as far as Ramana Ruth, 9 pounds and 6 ounces, was concerned.

Richard Briggs pulled up at the hospital parking lot, ran around his car and caught their baby just after she was born on the car's tweed upholstery.

"We couldn't wait any longer," Briggs said Thursday while holding his newborn at his wife's Potomac Hospital room. "I'm surprised there were no tweed imprints."

Briggs, and his wife, Joyce Trutter-Briggs, received some stares Wednesday night from passing cars while doing their pre-birth breathing exercises at traffic lights along the route from their Kerrydale home to the hospital.

They soon began to suspect they might not make it.

Once at the hospital, Briggs left the motor running to keep the heater on and asked a passer-by to get some help.

The couple didn't have time to get nervous. "We were busy," Briggs said.

The baby emerged and uttered her first cry. At that point, a nurse took over and hospital personnel assisted in finishing the delivery in the birthing room.

The couple, who had their first child two years ago, said they never expected a delivery could happen so fast.

"I've always heard that second babies come faster, but this was a lot more than I expected," Trutter-Briggs said.

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