Babies born on roadside in Sunbury and at 1000 Steps in two days
An off duty firefighter has gone above and beyond, helping deliver a baby on the side of a Sunbury road. Meanwhile at 1000 steps, another bub was also in a rush to come into the world.
North West
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Oh baby! Two babies have made unexpected entrances into the world in two days — both born on the side of the road, on opposite sides of Melbourne.
Gisborne firefighter Luke Hammond was on his way to work about 7am Wednesday morning when he noticed a woman in apparent distress on the side of Dalrymple Rd, Sunbury, being assisted by another lady.
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Kate Vandenberg said she called her mum, Denise Ball, for help after going into labour while her partner Braydn was at work.
“I got my older daughter up and we got into car. All of a sudden, I just knew. She was born in a couple of minutes,” Ms Vandenberg said.
Ms Ball was driving her daughter to the hospital, but soon realised they weren’t going to make it to hospital.
“I said ‘no love, you’re having the baby here’,” she said.
“It all happened so fast. I’d like to say how amazing her mum was. Her big sister was fantastic and so excited to meet her.”
Ms Ball delivered granddaughter Hope Beattie and Mr Hammond helped clear the newborn’s airway and maintained her breathing.
They cleaned the child and used Mr Hammond’s work jacket as a blanket as paramedics arrived on scene.
Gisborne CFA officer-in-charge Sam Strang said the entire brigade was very proud of Mr Hammond.
“We are trained to remain calm in stressful environments, but when responding as a firefighter we have time to think about how to go about a certain situation on the way to an incident,” he said.
“To be faced with this particular situation would have been very confronting. Luke displayed true professionalism in remaining calm and offering first aid assistance. We as a Brigade are very proud of Luke’s efforts.”
Ms Ball said another grandchild was due in about a month, and while she’s excited to be a grandmother again, she’s hoping the birth isn’t as rushed.
“But I’ll definitely be there if they need,” she added.
“This baby’s coming out right now”: Mitchell’s quick entrance into the world
An Olinda couple undertook a highly unusual challenge at Upper Ferntree Gully’s 1000 Steps on Tuesday night when they were forced to deliver their son on the side of the road at the tourist destination.
Drew and Amanda St. Leger were less than 2km from the Angliss Hospital about 11pm on Tuesday, January 22 when they had no choice but to pull over and meet their new baby on their own.
Mr St. Leger said the couple had calmly left home five minutes earlier — in no hurry at all — when all of a sudden Mrs St. Leger’s waters broke and she yelled, “This baby’s coming out right now”.
The father said he had wanted to keep driving until they reached the hospital, but when they rang 000, operator Maddy also advised him he had to pull over on Mount Dandenong Tourist Rd and deliver his child.
“I didn’t want to listen, but I had to,” he laughed.
Mrs St. Leger said by the time her husband had parked the car and come around to the passenger door their baby was out.
“It all happened very quick,” Mr St. Leger said.
The couple, who had not known what sex their baby was, said the operator asked them to check their child’s gender, but instead they waited five minutes until paramedics arrived to learn they had a son.
“I was sitting on the side of the road with this umbilical cord,” Mr St. Leger said.
“As they warned me on the phone, (babies) are extremely slippery.”
“Neither of us wanted to move in case we dropped him,” Mrs St. Leger laughed.
The couple were taken to hospital, where their 4.2kg son Mitchell, was confirmed to be completely healthy.
But then they were left with the dilemma of getting home.
“We were able to go home after six hours but we physically couldn’t because the car needed to be cleaned,” Mrs St. Leger said.
Mr St. Leger then made a dash home at 4am to hose and vacuum down the car so he could bring his wife and baby home.
“What an interesting experience that was,” he said.
Fortunately enough, the couple had coincidentally arranged for their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to have a sleepover at her grandmother’s.
The couple said the paramedics, 000 operator and the hospital were a wonderful help.
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