Isabella County Sheriff's Deputy Autume Griffus and Jennifer Rau look over newborn Lily Rau at Central Michigan Community Hospital Monday, Jan. 14, in Mount Pleasant. Griffus delivered Lily in the Mount Pleasant Comfort Inn parking lot after responding to a 911 call from Rau's husband. (Morning Sun/ Lisa Yanick)
Griffus and Deputy Todd Graham were on patrol shortly after 3 a.m. when they were informed that Central Dispatch had received a telephone call from a man that was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital.
That man was Casey Rau. He was taking his wife, Jennifer, to Gratiot Medical Center in Alma, but soon realized that his wife was not going to make it in time. He informed dispatchers that the baby’s head had started crowning.
He was told to pull into the parking lot of the Comfort Inn at 2424 S. Mission Road, and deputies would meet them there.
After arriving at the scene, Griffus and Graham realized that the birth was imminent and they would have to deliver the baby in the couple’s vehicle.
“It was a first for me,” said Griffus, who has worked at the department full-time since October after serving as a reserve deputy for a year-and-a-half. “It was really exciting.”
Once she saw Rau she knew there wasn’t much time to waste.
“It happened very fast,” Griffus said. “Probably less than three minutes. I barely had enough time to get my gloves on.”
“It only took two pushes,” said Rau, 28, of her fast and unexpected delivery.
“The woman deputy (Griffus) moved my body and she came out,” Rau said.
An ambulance arrived just as she was finishing the delivery.
“We tied the umbilical cord off, wiped the baby down and placed her on mom’s chest,” Griffus said. “It was a beautiful baby girl,” she said.
Graham drove the ambulance to Central Michigan Community in Mt. Pleasant while the EMTs looked after the mother, and Griffus followed in the patrol car.
The couple named their baby girl Lily, and they can’t wait until she is old enough to understand how she came into the world.
Rau said her husband was “freaking” out the entire time but said “he did really well.”
“He doesn’t like to see me in pain,” Rau said.
Delivering a baby is something that deputies don’t have to contend with very often, according to Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.
“Very infrequently do we get into that position,” he said. “Actually it’s nice to have some good, positive news for a change,” Mioduszewski said.

-- by Greg Nelson and Lisa Satayut, The Morning Sun