Smith: Petaluma doctor delivers own baby on way to hospital

She's a doctor and she has directed, assisted or witnessed hundreds of births. But Victoria Williams will never again perform a delivery like this one.

On May 2, the family practitioner at Rohnert Park Health Center and Petaluma Valley Hospital delivered her own baby. In a moving car.

She's grateful that her husband, Adam, was there to drive.

Dr. Williams had hoped to give birth to a May Day baby, but on the night of May 1 her contractions stalled out.

Early the next morning, her water broke and contractions resumed in earnest. She and her husband scooted out of their house between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, and headed toward Petaluma Valley Hospital.

They were southbound on Highway 101, in or near Cotati, when Adam Williams heard, “Baby's out!”

A few miles and minutes later, folks at Petaluma Valley's birthing center pitched in with examining and welcoming the robust Kainoa Isabel Williams.

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If you or I intended to swim 1.2 miles, cycle 56 miles and run 13.1 miles in Saturday's Ironman Santa Rosa half-triathlon, we'd be pulling together the most lightweight, comfy, breathable sportswear imaginable, would we not?

Competitor Dan Pasquale of San Joaquin County will pack up two full police uniforms, complete with gun belt and all the accoutrements. Why would he burden himself so?

“I've been to my share of officers' funerals,” said Pasquale, a corporal with the Tracy Police. The Marine Corps veteran will ride and run in uniform in the Ironman to honor all the police colleagues who have died in the line of duty and to raise money for fallen officers' families.

A cop for 18 years, Pasquale has created on Youcaring.com a request for donations to the California Peace Officers' Memorial Foundation that can be accessed here.

Ironman rules require that he wear a regular suit in the swim at Lake Sonoma. But upon emerging he'll don his regulation bike patrol uniform of shorts and a polo shirt, badge and belt.

He will ride in the cycle race to Santa Rosa not a super-light speedster but his sturdy, police mountain bike. If he finishes in time to qualify for the foot race along Santa Rosa Creek, he'll change into a customary patrol uniform, and run.

Sunday, Pasquale will slip into leisure duds and, with his family, savor Sonoma County and celebrate his 42nd birthday.

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A VISITOR FROM RUSSIA arrived in California in 1991 and his hosts, all Rotary Club members, needed someone to show him some of the natural wonders of the North Coast.

Rotarians found the right guy in Santa Rosa's Fred Feodorovitch Ptucha, a Vietnam vet whose work in citizen diplomacy includes scaling mountains with Climbers for Peace and co-founding a sister city kinship with Cherkasy, Ukraine.

Fred showed visitor Vladimir F. Donskoy the area, most memorably hiking with him beneath Humboldt County redwoods and sharing visions of a more peaceful world.

Now comes an email from Vladimir, recalling the trip and sharing that afterward he became a Rotary pioneer in his country, contributing to the creation there of more than 90 clubs.

It pleases Fred to think their walk through the redwoods may have contributed a bit to a boost in fraternity and philanthropy in Russia.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.