Fieldworker Has 1st Baby of New Year

The first contractions came as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Two hours later--2:15 a.m. to be exact--Jacqueline Coria Leon, the daughter of migrant workers from the Mexican state of Michoacan, became Ventura County’s first baby of the new millennium.

It all happened so quickly there wasn’t time to get to the hospital. She was born in bed, where her parents had been snuggling and watching the nation celebrate on television.

“I felt pain,” said 26-year-old Margarita Coria, who picked strawberries until her seventh month of pregnancy. “I couldn’t think. I just threw the blankets out of the way and told my husband, ‘The baby’s coming out!’ ”

Elsewhere in the county, residents partied and set off fireworks. As always, a handful of people fired shots into the air, prompting police calls from neighbors. Police in Ventura responded to a handful of domestic violence calls, and on the roads, officers made at least 10 drunk-driving arrests.

But officials reported no holiday-related deaths and nothing out of the ordinary from Ojai to Simi Valley. “Everyone pretty well behaved themselves,” said Ventura Police Lt. Skip Young.

At area hospitals, obstetrics nurses followed tradition, checking in with one another frequently to see where the first baby would be delivered.

Nurses at Ventura County Medical Center were taking the credit. Black-haired, ruddy-cheeked Jacqueline arrived by ambulance at 2:40 a.m. and was weighed in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

Francisco Leon, 31, was proud but still shaken after helping his wife deliver their daughter. This is the couple’s fourth child, but the first birth he witnessed.

The couple had yet to reach Salvador, 6; Diana, 4; and Santiago, 3, to give them the good news. The children are in Mexico, being looked after by their grandparents while their parents work here.