Delivering ‘Ivan’s baby’

It was a little after 10:30pm when the call came in. A pregnant woman was in labour and was requesting police escort to the Kingston Public Hospital in downtown Kingston.

That would not have been much of a problem for the police on a regular night but this was in the midst of the category four Hurricane Ivan.

“When we got the call they said that they had a vehicle but all they wanted was an escort so we told them to come. Their car was small and could not manage the water so we had to use one of our vehicles,” said Corporal Simone Bell, an officer at the Hunts Bay Police Station.

“They started out but had to turn back because of the poor visibility and the heavy rains. They waited a bit and went off again but had to return because of the heavy gunfire in the area. It just was not safe.”

By this time, the pregnant woman was in an advanced stage of labour. Her water had broken from 8am and she had been having contractions all day. According to Bell, the young lady had made her way from the hilly community of Mavis Bank to York Ave (in the Half Way Tree area), where the family of her child’s father lived. As the rains and winds escalated however the need for a speedy trip to the hospital became more urgent.

“They set off a third time but punctured near the Hagley Park area. They had to take a longer route because we could not go near Spanish Town Road at that time based on the status of the road – it was blocked,” explained Bell, who has been in the force for five years.

At five minutes to midnight, the group was back at the Hunts Bay Police Station with the expectant mother announcing that the baby was coming.

“We decided that we had to do it here. I spoke with my Superintendant and so on. Then I called a doctor who a girlfriend of mine knew. He told us what preparations to make,” Bell recalled.

Those preparations included putting a shower curtain on a bed in the female quarters of the police station. The shower curtain was covered with newspapers and a sheet. A pot with rum in it was used to sterilise a pair of scissors and some clothespins.

“The men carried her up the stairs. We had to look for a dry section to put her in because the wind was coming through the windows. Some of the beds had been soaked,” said Bell.

There were eight officers in the room and they paired up to do what would turn out to be a 25 minutes delivery.

“Two officers were holding her legs. Two were encouraging her and two were doing the preparations like sterilising the equipment,” said Bell. “The baby came out headway and we cut the umbilical cord and used the clothes pins to clamp it.”

The four and a half pound baby was caught by Constable Junior Rhule, who Bell described as her right hand during the delivery.

“He was very, very calm,” she said. “Initially we had been concerned because she was a teenager and this was her first birth. So I called Nurse Jennifer Parker, who helped to coach us through the birth.”

Constable Eric Lindsay was crucial in holding the phone to her ear during the process, Bell said.

“He was updating downstairs on what was happening and most of the time he held the cell phone to my ear. Then when the head crowned he said ‘the head is coming” and he took off. I guess he could not take anymore,” she recalled. “Rhule helped to guide the baby out.”

The baby started crying as soon as he was delivered and was quickly cleaned up and handed to his mother.

Rhule, who has been in the force for a year, said that this had been his second birth experience.

“The first time was before I was in the force. I was a fireman for seven years. We had been transporting a mother to the hospital when the baby came. I was not as integrally involved but I did hold on to a foot then,” said the jovial officer.

It was the first birth for Bell but she said that police officers were exposed to theoretical midwifery exercises during their First Aid training while at the police training school.

During the interview with all woman, Bell checked with the mother and baby. The mother had been released from hospital but the child was being kept for observation.

“They are not taking any chances that he could be infected so they are keeping him for observation. But he is fine – he was well developed and healthy,” said Bell, who has one biological child but admitted to mothering many more.

While the child still has not been named, he was one of eight babies delivered during the storm. The other officers who assisted with the birth were Constable Althea Galloway, Constable Oneika Patrick, Constable Taneisha Miller.

The mother and child were made very comfortable until about midday on Saturday morning when they left to go to the hospital. By then the hurricane winds and rain had eased somewhat.

“That night was particularly rough though because we were under heavy gunfire during that time and people were deliberately blocking the roads. We had to be clearing the road constantly to get where we wanted to go so we had a lot to contend with,” said Rhule who had worked from the Thursday evening until the Saturday evening – that is before, during and after Ivan.

“I came to work the Thursday evening for the 3-11 shift. I was confined to barracks so I could not leave. It was Saturday evening before I could go home and see what happened. Then I went back to work on Sunday morning,” he said.

The birth was still a high point for the officers and Bell told all woman that she would be keeping in touch with the teenaged mother.