Doctor Puts Her Own Birth on Hold to Deliver Baby

It probably won’t come as ‘breaking news’ but we mums are pretty awesome.

Whether it’s wrangling a toddler who’s determined to lick their own shoes or pushing 4 kgs of baby out of something resembling the eye of a needle, we know how to get the job done.

Take mother and Obstetrician/Gynaecologist, Dr Amanda Hess. Dr Hess rocked up to the Frankfort Regional Medical Centre, Kentucky with plans to get down to business and deliver her own bundle of joy. While pacing the room and waiting for her induction to start, nurses told Dr Hess that the patient in the next room had gone from 1cm dilated to ready to push, within the space of an hour, and there were fears that the umbilical cord was wrapped around baby’s neck.

That patient was Leah Halliday-Johnson, who just so happened to be one of Dr Hess’s patients. Upon hearing that the on-call doctor was still on his break, Dr Hess didn’t hesitate in switching from ‘birthing mama’ to ‘super star baby deliverer’. “I just put on another gown to cover up my backside, put on some boots over my shoes, to keep from getting any fluid and all that stuff on me, and went down to her room,” Hess told Kentucky news station WKYT.

Can I push now?

The nurses warned Leah NOT to push without a doctor present due to fear of complications. The mum-of-four however, was having trouble following their instructions. “I was not being quiet about the fact that it was difficult for me not to push,” Halliday-Johnson says. It was at that point that Dr Hess appeared, much to the relief of Leah. “I said; it’s great to see you can I push now?” And push she did, delivering a healthy 3.6kg baby girl in two quick pushes. The on-call doctor arrived back on the scene shortly after the arrival (finally!) and Dr. Hess returned to her room to prepare for her own arrival from the stork who delivered a healthy baby girl, Ellen Joyce.