Mom turned away from health centre, baby born in back seat of car

SIMONE CHADEE anticipated the birth of her fourth child next month. But she had no idea she was going to deliver her baby girl in the back seat of a moving car in Marabella. Baby Athena has been given a clean bill of health and weighed 2.8 kilograms.

Chadee said she started having labour pains on Friday afternoon and hired a car to take her to the Marabella Health Centre. But when she reached there with her niece Amalee Rivers, the staff told her they did not have any facilities to deliver the baby.

She was allegedly told: “Why did you come here and not go to the hospital?”

Chadee told Newsday she believed there would have been a doctor and nurses there to help her.

“A nurse briefly checked my dilation and said the baby was coming, and told me there was nothing they could do for me and I should go to the hospital.”

Still visibly traumatised, she said: “A nurse told me to lie on my side in the back seat of the car while on the way to the hospital. I was in so much pain, but I still could not believe what I was hearing. I left the centre. I thought I was going to lose my baby.”

Knowing there would be traffic at that time, which would make getting to the hospital difficult, Chadee said the driver took her to the Marabella police station.

“Going to the nearest police station was my last option.” Chadee’s amniotic sac (water bag) burst in front the station. Police agreed to escort her to the hospital.

“I was so scared. I have never been so scared in my life for myself and my baby.”

Rivers sat in the back seat trying to comfort her.

Chadee said: “I told her this baby is coming now. At that moment I knew I was going to have the baby in the car.”

The driver, who happened to be an emergency medical technician, told Rivers what to do and a few minutes later Athena was born.

“I could hear her cries, and Amalee handed her to me. She was the perfect angel. We wrapped her in a blanket. I cried tears of joy when I held her.”

On arrival at the San Fernando general hospital, mother and baby were taken into accident and emergency department where doctors cut the umbilical cord.

“I really would not wish this upon any mother. I think there should be some provisions where, in emergency situations, nurses and doctors could assist pregnant women at health facilities. What if, while on my way to the hospital, my baby got into difficulty? What would they have said? I think this is unacceptable knowing how close I was to giving birth.”