Surprise home birth over the phone

Jim Campbell Of The Toowoomba Chronicle | 5th March 2009

KATRINA Wordie took on the roles of mum, midwife and doctor on Tuesday night when her baby boy arrived a week early.

Miss Wordie was with her partner Ricky Nichols at their Placid Hills home when she realised her baby wasn't going to wait for the date he was supposed to arrive - he wasn't even going to wait for an ambulance.

Mr Nichols dialled triple-0 and spoke to a calm and collected communications officer, David Hartshorn, who talked the couple through the delivery over the phone and then met them in person at Toowoomba Hospital yesterday.

However, the baby boy was brought into the world solely by his mum, who delivered him standing up and said she “caught him like a little boy basketball”.

“I woke up and straight away realised what was happening,” the mother of five said.

“Ricky tried to get me out into the car but then I realised that wasn't going to happen.

“I said, 'the baby's coming', then it was, 'the baby's here'.”

Miss Wordie made her way into the house while Mr Nichols dialled triple-0 and was connected with Mr Hartshorn.

“Ricky was running around like a madman,” Miss Wordie said.

But Mr Hartshorn said Mr Nichols did a “10 out of 10” job as a supporting role in the drama.

However, he had no doubt the star of the show was mum.

Ambulance officers arrived at the family home about five minutes after the baby was born, but the hard work was already done.

The officers commented they knew the baby had already been delivered because they could hear him crying when they parked in front of the house.

Mr Hartshorn even commented it sounded like the baby had “a very healthy set of lungs” on the other end of the phone line.

Miss Wordie and her 2.8kg baby boy, who had not been named yesterday, spent the day at Toowoomba Hospital with clean bills of health.