Soothill grandma turns midwife for granddaughter
AS a grandparent, you must always expect the unexpected.
But this was taken to the extreme by Soothill grandma Christine Smith.
When she popped round to her daughter's house to babysit her granddaughter, she ended up delivering another!
Quick-thinking Christine, 53, played midwife as her daughter Kathryn gave birth at home last Wednesday after a very short labour - and even had to pull the cord away from the neck of newborn baby Florence.
When Kathryn, 24, had started to feel contractions in the night, she thought there was plenty of time to make it to hospital as planned.
But in less than an hour, Florence had been delivered by anxious Christine and dad Lee Ryan in the living room of the family's Woodkirk home.
Lee, 33, said: "We were due to go in to be induced on the Saturday. The bags were all packed for hospital.
"Never in a million years had we planned for a home birth."
But after keeping her parents waiting nine days longer than expected, it seemed baby Florence was now in a hurry to be born.
Lee, of Woodkirk Gardens, said: "Kathryn was getting really bad pains and I was counting out the contractions, which were every five minutes."
He rang the hospital, who told him to drive her there.
He said: "There was no way I could get her in the car so I rang back for an ambulance."
In the meantime, Kathryn's mum Christine was driving round from her home in Soothill to look after the couple's 22-month-old daughter Anabelle.
She arrived before the ambulance – and was just in the nick of time.
Christine, of Laithe Croft Road, said: "I checked Kathryn and said the baby's coming and all of a sudden she came out.
"I got hold of her and the cord was just round the back of her neck. I got the cord free and she started crying after about 10 seconds which was a big relief."
Soon after, the ambulance arrived to check on mum and baby Florence Amelia Ryan, who weighed in at a healthy 8.5lb.
A proud and relieved Lee said: "All the credit goes to Christine. She was so calm. If I'd been on my own, I couldn't have held Kathryn and delivered the baby - we'd never planned for that."
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
