When Cpl. Noah Mutrie received word on Sept. 19 that his wife Ashley had gone into labor, he wasn’t out getting ice cream at the convenience store.
Instead Mutrie, a sniper with the U.S. Army’s Bravo Battery, 2/12 Field Artillery, 4/2 Infantry Division, was on a mission more than 7,000 miles away in Iraq. That Cpl. Mutrie was able to coach his wife on breathing techniques and witness the birth of their first child, 4-lb., 7-oz. Jordan Michael, was due to the cooperation between several organizations, including the Army, Vassar Brothers Medical Center and the Freedom Calls Foundation, a nonprofit charity set up to connect soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with their loved ones back home.
And in a press conference at Vassar Hospital the day after Jordan Michael’s birth, both parents’ joy was obvious.
“I had the easiest job in the room,” said Cpl. Mutrie, who was present on a monitor via webcam and a live satellite feed for the 10 hours that his wife was in labor.
Ashley Mutrie, a 2003 Arlington High School graduate, Poughkeepsie resident and ex-Army specialist, was enormously grateful that her husband, a native of Louisiana, was able to be with her for the momentous occasion.
“I can’t explain how awesome it was for him to be in the room with me. This was the next best thing, if you can’t be there, to be there on webcam. I never imagined that from thousands of miles away he’d be sitting in my room and he’d get to see his son come into the world. There’s nothing like it. This was an amazing opportunity for both of us,” she said.
The opportunity was created when Ashley Mutrie and her obstetrician, Dr. Adele El Kareh, contacted the hospital about including Cpl. Mutrie in the birthing experience.
“It involved a bit of decision-making. There are risks of a live webcam on a birth, because there’s the potential of something going wrong, but we put that aside fairly quickly because of the tremendous benefit that could accrue,” said Vassar Brothers president and CEO Dr. Daniel Aronzon.
The hospital and the Freedom Calls Foundation worked out the logistics with the Army – no small feat – and ensured that Cpl. Mutrie would be available around the approximate due date. Everything was set, but Jordan Michael had other ideas.
Speeding up the process
“Coordinating a due date on a baby, which everyone knows is not an exact time, and coordinating with a fairly small bureaucracy known as the U.S. Army halfway around the world was difficult, but it all worked out to make sure the technology and equipment was available to facilitate a live webcam feed when munchkin arrived in this world,” said Aronzon.
Of course, Ashley Mutrie went into labor a week before the due date and her husband was out on routine patrol when her contractions started. Cpl. Mutrie was quickly contacted and his video image was awaiting his wife when she arrived in the delivery room.
“I was ecstatic because I hadn’t seen her in six months and she did a wonderful job,” he said.
The screen was placed on Ashley’s right side and Dr. El Kareh and her nurses would hold charts up to the camera to apprise the expectant father of this son’s progress.
“It was great, just really exciting. It was weird at first, I didn’t realize it was a TV, but I’d talk to him and tell him how things were going,” said Jen Volk, a nurse in the delivery room.
Boosting morale
When the baby successfully arrived in the world, Cpl. Mutrie said the auspicious event boosted morale with his fellow soldiers.
“There are 2,500 people in my battery and things like this spread like wildfire. It really creates a buzz. People I didn’t even know were coming up to shake my hand and congratulate me,” said Mutrie.
The web conference was something that has become almost routine for Freedom Calls, which handles more than 2,000 such meetings per month, according to executive director John Harlow.
“It’s great when families get to do this type of thing. We started this in 2003 and it’s entirely free to the families. Last month we ran up a $7,000 bill, so we need support from individuals or corporations or we’ll have to shut down,” said Harlow. Those interested in donating should go to www.freedomcalls.org.
Cpl. Mutrie has been overseas since April and won’t get to see his wife and child until he receives 18 days of leave in January.
According to Ashley Mutrie, he’ll have some work to catch up on.
“He’ll have a lot of diapers to change,” she said.