Home birth becomes a family occasion as Alfie arrives before the ambulance
A father and grandmother had to stand in as emergency midwives when a baby arrived unexpectedly at home.
Alfie Jack Fallon, weighing in at 10lb and 2oz, was seven days overdue, when he made his swift entrance into the world.
With no time to get mum Eleanor Thompson, 21, to hospital, partner Mark Fallon and Eleanor’s mother Sheila did the best they could with the help of staff on the phone.
The proud father said yesterday: “Alfie is perfectly fine, he’s happy.”
He added: “Eleanor was so excited about it she couldn’t sleep. She handled it brilliantly”
The drama began on Tuesday evening.
Mark, 30, of Bretton Avenue, Goole, said: “It all happened very quickly I rang the midwives at something past 3pm and they told us to put her in the bath and give her paracetamol.
“She was supposed to be going to Scunthorpe Hospital on January 31, but she was seven days overdue.
“Her pains started to get a little bit worse so I rang Scunthorpe Hospital and they told us to bring her in.
“We were going to drive there in her mum’s car but her mum arrived at about 5pm and by that time her waters had broken.
“We put her on the bed and the head was coming out.
“I was on the phone to the emergency team and they were liaising with me to talk us through the birth.
“I was explaining how to deliver the baby and her mum grabbed his head and the baby just came out.”
He added: “We had to do it – we didn’t have a choice, the ambulance came 10 minutes after he was born and they let me cut the cord and everything was fine.”
Alfie has five other siblings, four sisters and one brother, aged from one to 11, and is Eleanor’s third child. Her first labour lasted 16 hours and her second four.
Eleanor said: “I am happy and glad it’s all over – but I really need a rest now.”
Sheila said there was no point panicking: “It was quite scary.
“I basically delivered him because there was no one else to do it.
“It’s not something I will forget in a hurry. I used to be a nurse so I had an idea what would happen but of course it is different when you are doing it with your daughter.
“I didn’t panic because I knew there was no one else there to do it – but she had better not be doing it again!”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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