Dad delivers baby on bathroom floor with help of triple-0 operator
A dad has revealed the emotional moment he delivered his baby girl on the bathroom floor of the family home.
Tom Andrews left for work two weeks ago while his heavily pregnant wife Tanya stayed at their home in Forestville in Sydney’s north.
On August 14 Mrs Andrews, who already had two children, had a feeling she was about to give birth to the couple’s third and told her husband to keep his phone on him.
About 1.45pm, Mr Andrews received a text from his wife saying she felt she was going into labour.
“I asked whether I should catch a bus or a taxi and she said a bus would be fine,” he told Yahoo7 News.
“I hopped in the elevator and by the time I got to the ground she said maybe I should get a taxi. Everything ramped up pretty quickly.”
When Mr Andrews arrived home he found his wife on the couch calmly painting her nails. As her contractions started he grabbed the bags and threw them in the car before going back inside to help her.
By the time they got out the front door to the porch, it was too late.
“She said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to make it’, so I called triple-0 and we made a move to the bathroom,” he said.
“Tan had a couple of big contractions and the NSW Ambulance call centre was just talking us through the process – get some towels, make sure she’s comfortable.
“Everything was going so quickly and they were asking for Tan’s date of birth, and I’m trying to answer their questions while the baby’s head starts popping out.”
The NSW Ambulance call operator, Ashley Purvis, was just 15 days into the job when she received Mr Andrews’ call, and the father said she kept the couple calm while instructing them on what to do.
“We were in the bathroom for six minutes and Tan had one big contraction and Chloe’s head popped out and the body popped out three minutes later,” Mr Andrews said.
“We were lucky there were no complications and Tan was OK.
“When Chloe came out it was pretty surreal. With the other two kids the midwife or doctor caught the baby but this time I got to catch her and feel the newborn baby straight out of the womb.”
Chloe weighed about 8.7 pounds and was 53 centimetres long.
“It was pretty emotional, just an awesome experience to share with Tan,” Mr Andrews said.
“We were so fortunate everything went smoothly and it was pretty intimate and we have a special bond with the third one, having gone through something like that.”
Mr Andrews said adrenaline kicked in and he did not panic because of the support he had from NSW Ambulance and Ms Purvis.
“She kept us updated with how far the paramedics were away and that was really reassuring,” he said.
“We just want to say a huge thanks to NSW Ambulance and service people, they deal with a lot of tough jobs and for us they made the process a lot easier and smoother with their support.”
