Mum panicked during DIY home breech birth

Middlemount mum Sarah Berghauser was put on a merry-go-round of three hospitals before giving birth in her bathroom with her husband talked through the breech birth by an ambulance officer over the phone.

MIDDLEMOUNT mum Sarah Berghauser was on a merry-go-round of three hospitals before giving birth in her bathroom with her husband talked through the breech delivery by a paramedic on the phone.

Sarah Berghauser wanted to deliver baby Naomi, now 3, at her nearest hospital but Dysart no longer has birthing facilities so they planned to deliver at Mackay Hospital, 300km away.

“The baby had been breech or transverse the entire pregnancy and we were doing the final check-up at Dysart when they said she was head down,” Ms Berghauser said.

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“They said that was fantastic and we could stay home in Middlemount for another three days before making the trip to Mackay Hospital.”

Sarah Berghauser gave birth at home with an ambulance officer talking through the procedure over the phone.

At 3am the next morning Ms Berghauser woke up in pain.

She rang Dysart Hospital, a 45-minute drive from home.

“They told us they would not take us, and we would have to travel to Emerald about 150km away because they don’t deliver babies anymore,” she said. “I said ‘I’m really sorry but I’m about 45 minutes from Dysart already, or an-hour-and-a-half to Emerald, we’re coming whether you like it or not’.”

Ms Berghauser was worried after her three previous quick labours. She went to the toilet before leaving and realised she was bleeding.

“I started to panic and thought something was very, very wrong, so instead of leaving for Dysart we called 000 and the operator said, ‘you’re going to have the baby at home’,” she said. “I said, ‘no I’m not, you’re sending the ambulance to take us to Dysart’.”

Sarah Berghauser with her daughter Naomi, 3. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Ms Berghauser said then her water broke and panicked with the amount of blood she had lost.

“She asked my husband to see if he could see the head crowning,” she said. “She said ‘what can you see?’ and he said, ‘two feet’ and my heart just leapt.

“I was still panicking and worried but our triple zero operator was fantastic and talked us through it.”

Paramedics arrived a few minutes later and they were transferred to Emerald Hospital.

But even more shock came for the parents when they went to lodge the forms with the registry.

“They sent it all back with a letter stating that we couldn’t prove she was our daughter because there was no medical person present at her birth,” she said.

“We just got a statutory declaration at Dysart to prove she was our child, I suppose it is for a medical kidnap, something you don’t think about but obviously those rules are in place for a reason.”