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Employee Delivers Baby in Self-Service Laundry Bathroom

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — An attendant at the Clean People Coinless Laundry in Santa Monica, Calif., performed a little extra customer service when a woman went into labor, helping to deliver the baby in the self-service laundry’s bathroom.Nancy Jimenez was visiting her cousin, Rosalva Jimenez, who works at the laundry, when she started complaining about having trouble breathing and a backache. She had been to the hospital earlier, leaving for 20 minutes to drop off paperwork for her upcoming delivery, but she still felt ill upon her return. Nancy Jimenez made her way into the bathroom, where the screaming started.“I tried to help her walk out [of the bathroom], but she said ‘I can’t walk out,’” Rosalva Jimenez, who works in the fluff and fold section, told the Santa Monica Daily Press. “I said, ‘No, Nancy, don’t do that to me. You have to walk.’ She said, ‘I can’t, I can feel the baby’s head.’”Rosalva Jimenez called 911, grabbed some towels, and helped her cousin through the delivery of a baby boy.“I didn’t have the chance to have feelings,” Rosalva Jimenez told the newspaper. “I was there, and I knew I had to do my best.”Rosalva Jimenez reports that both her cousin and the new baby are both doing well.Stan Fox, whose family owns Clean People, was sitting in his office when he saw Nancy Jimenez walk into the bathroom on the surveillance camera and heard the screams. Almost immediately, his employee rushed in to ask for towels and the phone.“She was very cool under pressure,” Fox told the Santa Monica Daily Press. “I’m glad I wasn’t there alone.” 

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