A Library That Takes Its Community Activities Center Role Seriously

Pastor's wife has baby in H.B. library bathroom. (Orange County Register, 5/16/2011)

Excerpt: Jennifer Wagner thought she had time.

This being her fourth child, she knew the pains and sensations that came along with childbirth except for one: the feeling that came right before her baby was born in the bathroom at the Huntington Beach Central Library.

Wagner, 38, of Brea was attending Alive church on Sunday. Her husband, Jerod Wagner, is the church's pastor and the group meets in the Talbert room of the library.

Partway through the service, Wagner realized she was in labor.

"I thought I was having Braxton Hicks contractions," she said in an interview Monday. "I didn't want to tell my husband yet because I knew he had to preach still. It wasn't until halfway through the sermon I realized these were real contractions."

Titus Sebastian was born around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday with the help of two of Wagner's friends in the bathroom of the library. It was calm and quick and Titus and his mom are healthy and expected to go home tonight or Tuesday morning.

Thanks to cj Lewis, a distance education student in LIS 712 (The Public Library).   She "adopted" the Huntington Beach Central Library for her semester-long field project.