A mum has told how she gave birth to her baby on her bathroom floor after going into labour when she was just 34 weeks pregnant.
Sandra Rhodes, 32, from Melbourne, Australia called her husband, Jack, when she first felt contractions but before they could get to a hospital she was forced to deliver the baby herself – after just two minutes in labour.
The week prior, the Australian mum noticed bleeding and was taken to hospital for tests, but after checking her cervix, the doctor insisted there was no sign of early labour.
Sandra told That’s Life Australia that her doctor thought it would be another few weeks before the baby arrived, but her other two children – Joey, three and Mia, one – had arrived quickly also, so she wasn’t so sure.
But just a few days later she knew something wasn’t right.
Sandra had just finished her last day of work before maternity leave when she felt sharp pains in her belly while driving home.
She pulled over to call Jack and asked him to pick up the kids so she could go straight home to rest.
Once home, the pains continued with the pregnant Sandra brushing it of as Braxton Hicks – false labour pains.
But desperate for the toilet, Sandra made her way to the bathroom where the pain suddenly got worse.
Sandra said: “I focused on my breathing, knowing it wouldn’t be long before I was taken to the hospital.
“But as I gritted my teeth through another contraction, I suddenly felt the head against my cervix.”
And that’s when she realised the baby was coming.
She was told by the dispatcher still on the phone to support the baby’s head, but Sandra struggled to wrap her arms around her full-sized bump.
“Two minutes later, I felt another strong contraction,” Sandra recalled, “I pushed, holding the baby’s head and body between my legs and then suddenly, he was out.”
Naturally, Sandra scooped up her new born baby and held him to her chest, and after a few minutes of heavy breathing, she heard his first cry.
She said: “My shoulders sagged with relief. I’d given birth to a beautiful little boy.”
As Sandra sat on her bathroom floor, the phone operator still on the line, she was told to wrap him in a towel.
But unable to move, all she could reach was the nearby bathmat, “that’ll have to do,” she was told.
She said: “My shoulders sagged with relief. I’d given birth to a beautiful little boy.”
As Sandra sat on her bathroom floor, the phone operator still on the line, she was told to wrap him in a towel.
But unable to move, all she could reach was the nearby bathmat, “that’ll have to do,” she was told.
Sandra said his mouth dropped open in surprise as she said, laughing: “Meet our little boy.”
After a quick check over, mum and bub were whisked off to hospital, and because the baby was born premature and weighed just over two kilos, he was taken to the special care nursery – where he remained for four weeks.
Now, Eli is doing brilliantly, Sandra says.
“I still can’t believe I delivered my own baby on the bathroom floor.
“He really is our two-minute miracle.”
