So much death in the news, but Hamilton got one back Saturday even though the setting was unconventional.

A Hamilton police officer helped a woman deliver her baby as she lay on a sidewalk outside her home near Cannon Street East and Chestnut Avenue.

Just after 10 a.m. the woman phoned 911 in intense pain from labour.

Moments later she walked out the front door and lay on the sidewalk.

She is 38-years-old, and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

Two police officers arrived first.

Const. Kevin Vanderheide noted that the baby’s head was crowning, and helped the woman through the final push.

It’s a girl.

Vanderheide cradled the baby, and along with Const. Dave Kerkhof wrapped her in a towel and handed the child, still attached to the umbilical chord, to the mother.

Paramedics arrived and rushed them to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Hamilton Police told the Spectator that mother and daughter are doing well.

No word yet on a name, although with baby names all over the map these days Chestnut/Chessie could well be in the running.

And around central police station downtown, colleagues have taken to affectionately calling Const. Vanderheide “Uncle Kevin.”