Veteran Triple-0 call taker, Nick Smith, helps deliver 20th baby

Nick Smith was the perfect person to pick up the triple-0 call when expectant parents suddenly faced the reality of delivering their own baby on the bathroom floor.

Baby whisperer Nick Smith was the perfect phone a friend when Emma and Jarrod Hill suddenly faced the reality of delivering their own baby on the bathroom floor.

The veteran Triple 0 call taker had been in the hectic situation before - an amazing 19 times, in fact.

Since joining the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority 19 years ago, Mr Smith has developed up an uncanny knack answering the call to Victoria’s most in-a-rush arrivals.

Despite the extraordinary regularity of finding himself in the middle of a stranger’s labour, Mr Smith said he still got the same joy from hearing the cry from baby Moana Hill - his 20th birth - as he did from his first.

“There’s always the moment where we ask ‘is the baby crying or breathing’ and time kind of stops for a second, and you are just willing the universe towards that,” Mr Smith told the Herald Sun.

ESTA call-taker Nick Smith helped parents Jarrod and Emma Hill deliver baby Moama, also pictured big brother Toby, 2. Picture: Mark Stewart

“When you do hear the baby immediately cry, that is just the best feeling in the world.”

When she first began labour on February 6, there wasn’t the slightest hint Ms Hill would have to call on Mr Smith’s much practised skills.

The early stages of labour were progressing so slowly Ms Hill was sent home from Box Hill hospital and went to bed for the night, waking after 5am to have a shower to relax.

Then - at 6.13am - Mr Hill had the sudden urge to “push”, followed by a scream that woke her sleeping husband and sent him scampering to the bathroom

“I couldn’t get up, that’s how much pain I was in,” Ms Hill said.

“I just said to Jared ‘no, I think I’m gonna have the baby now, I need to push.”

After an initial call to Box Hill Hospital it was realised there wasn’t a second to waste, so an ambulance was dispatched to their Nunawading home and Mr Hill called triple-0 to get advice on what to do in the meantime.

The birth of Moama marks the 20th birth Nick has talked parents through while being an ESTA dispatcher. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I was a little bit in shock that the baby was coming,” Mr Hill said.

“Nick said ‘have a look and see what you can see’ - when I saw a little head I nearly passed out.

“But Nick kept me going.

“We propped Emma up and got it ready - the baby was basically coming so he described it to me and it happened very quickly.”

Having successfully guided Mr Hill through the steps of his sudden midwifery roll - including advice such as “the baby will be slippery and wet, don’t drop it” - Mr Smith said the most important skill was remaining calm and thinking two steps ahead so person on the other end of the phone is prepared for what comes next.

“If you’re calm, you can help mum and dad, so it’s keeping a nice calm tone and getting a rapport with a family,” Mr Smith said.

ESTA call-taker Nick Smith talked parents Jarrod and Emma Hill deliver through the birth of their daughter during an emergency triple-0 call. Picture: Mark Stewart

“Some people can be very heightened and, at that time, it’s just a matter of reflecting back to mum and saying, ‘we’re going to we’re going to do this together, we’re going to help mum and we’re going to help you deliver the baby’.”

With Moana delivered in perfect health about one minute before paramedics arrived, Ms Hill was full of praise for Mr Smith and her husband.

“Of course I was frightened, but as soon as I heard Nick’s voice - because he does have a very calming voice - that really relaxed me and then relaxed my husband,” she said.

“You have no time to really worry - you’ve just got to do it.”