Imagine you are at work, doing what you normally do when all of a sudden a man in a frenzy bursts through the doors and shouts: "Call an Ambulance, my wife is giving birth".
That is exactly what happened to Helen Roughley, a Perth woman yesterday.
This is the story I wrote:
A Perth mother with no medical experience delivered a baby in a carpark in the middle of a downpour this morning while a police officer, a port worker and the frantic father looked on in awe.
Helen Roughley of Port Kennedy said she could still not believe she had helped deliver someone’s baby, saying it would be one of the great memories of her life.
Ms Roughley — who has an 18-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter — was at work at a Success BP service station when shortly after 7am a man walked in and asked her to call an ambulance as his wife’s water had just broken.
After calling the ambulance, Ms Roughley went out to the expectant mother who was in heavy labour in the front passenger seat of a car. The couple’s two toddlers were sitting in the back seat.
“I could see she was going to have the baby at any moment so I decided I had to do something. I went into the store and put on a pair of gloves,” Ms Roughley said.
“At the time, I was shaking, thinking ‘where the hell is the ambulance’,” she said.
A South Metro TIG police officer and a Fremantle Port Authority worker saw the commotion and came to help.
As the rain pounded down, the port worker held out his reflective jacket to prevent the rain streaking into the car as Ms Roughley squeezed inside.
“I just knew I had to do something. I told myself ‘I am going to do this’,” she said.
The young mother, who was in her twenties, was panicking and the first thing Ms Roughley said she did was to calm her down.
“I told her to breathe in and out and to relax. I could see the shoulders of the baby coming out. I put out my hand, told her to push and it sort of just popped out,” she said.
A healthy baby girl was born and moments later, an ambulance pulled into the carpark.
Paramedics examined the baby and clamped the umbilical cord before taking the mother and child to King Edward Memorial Hospital, where they are both doing well.
Throughout the delivery, Ms Roughley said the woman’s husband paced around and eventually got into the car with her.
“You could see, he was very nervous and worried,” she said.
As the ambulance pulled away, Ms Roughley went into her office and poured herself some ice coffee.
“I needed it. I then called my area manager and said, ‘guess what, I just delivered a baby’!”
Helen Roughley of Port Kennedy said she could still not believe she had helped deliver someone’s baby, saying it would be one of the great memories of her life.
Ms Roughley — who has an 18-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter — was at work at a Success BP service station when shortly after 7am a man walked in and asked her to call an ambulance as his wife’s water had just broken.
After calling the ambulance, Ms Roughley went out to the expectant mother who was in heavy labour in the front passenger seat of a car. The couple’s two toddlers were sitting in the back seat.
“I could see she was going to have the baby at any moment so I decided I had to do something. I went into the store and put on a pair of gloves,” Ms Roughley said.
“At the time, I was shaking, thinking ‘where the hell is the ambulance’,” she said.
A South Metro TIG police officer and a Fremantle Port Authority worker saw the commotion and came to help.
As the rain pounded down, the port worker held out his reflective jacket to prevent the rain streaking into the car as Ms Roughley squeezed inside.
“I just knew I had to do something. I told myself ‘I am going to do this’,” she said.
The young mother, who was in her twenties, was panicking and the first thing Ms Roughley said she did was to calm her down.
“I told her to breathe in and out and to relax. I could see the shoulders of the baby coming out. I put out my hand, told her to push and it sort of just popped out,” she said.
A healthy baby girl was born and moments later, an ambulance pulled into the carpark.
Paramedics examined the baby and clamped the umbilical cord before taking the mother and child to King Edward Memorial Hospital, where they are both doing well.
Throughout the delivery, Ms Roughley said the woman’s husband paced around and eventually got into the car with her.
“You could see, he was very nervous and worried,” she said.
As the ambulance pulled away, Ms Roughley went into her office and poured herself some ice coffee.
“I needed it. I then called my area manager and said, ‘guess what, I just delivered a baby’!”
No comments:
Post a Comment