Watch: Touching moment police officer saves 12-day-old baby's life

The moment a police officer in the United States saves a baby's life has gone viral.

Deputy William Kimbro, from South Carolina in the US was performing a routine traffic stop and couldn't have guessed he was about to save the life of a newborn baby.

Kimbro pulled over a car for speeding. Inside that car, a family were rushing their 12-day-old baby girl to hospital because she'd stopped breathing after taking her bottle.

Body camera footage captured the entire ordeal and shows the police officer calmly keeping baby Ryleigh alive for six minutes until emergency services arrive.

The video shows Kimbro giving Ryleigh a few quick rescue breaths, and massaging her heart on her mother's lap.

"Come on baby, cry for me, cry for me," he says as he tries to save the baby girl's life.

"As long as she's crying like that, she's breathing,'' he says.

The officer told the mother he didn't feel a heartbeat at first.

"I didn't feel a heartbeat earlier so I started massaging her heart and now I feel it's real strong now,'' he said.

Emergency services then took the girl to hospital.

Ryleigh has since been released and is doing well at home.

The officer has been awarded a Life Saving Medal for his quick thinking and compassion.

"When we wear the uniform and badge, we become what someone needs at that moment. For one Deputy that meant he needed to become the line between life and death for one young child," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook.