Woman awakened to deliver baby in house
You'd be forgiven for thinking you're in a deep dream if you heard the screams: "Come quick, come quick, a woman is having a baby."
Western Extension resident Lorna Limpitlaw (68) wasn’t dreaming, she was being summoned by two women who desperately sought assistance on Sunday, July 12.
“I was in a deep sleep and all of a sudden I heard my name being called out at the gate,” said Limpitlaw, who was awoken at 7.45am.
“I opened the door and found two women standing there in their night attire.”
The women told Limpitlaw someone was having a baby in a home on Elston Avenue, about a block away.
“I said: ‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I’ll go, I’ll go’,” said the retired nursing sister and qualified midwife, who was still in her pyjamas.
“I ran down the road and we were ushered into a bedroom, where a baby boy had been delivered, but the mother was in shock.”
Limpitlaw said she and other volunteers tied the umbilical chord (which was around the baby’s neck) with black cotton and wrapped the child in towels.
“I was praying: please God don’t let me kill anyone,” she said.
Paramedics later arrived on scene.
The 68-year-old was thrilled to be part of another childbirth, as she last delivered a baby 40 years ago.
“It was a big, bouncing baby boy, he was just so big and chubby,” she told the City Times.
Limpitlaw said the baby and his mother were doing well on Sunday.
