Police constable of Standerton delivers baby on his mother’s birthday
Sgt Nkomo had in the meantime contacted emergency personnel and Const Piyose had alerted a neighbour, who arrived with towels.
A police woman turned midwife, a healthy baby born in Palmer Drive, Sakhile on the mother’s birthday and the sheer exuberance afterwards.
Const Nelisiwe Piyose and Sgt Teboho Nkomo of Sakhile Police were on the last stretch of their evening shift on September 5 at 5:07.
“Hey Sarge, we have to make a U-turn,” Const Piyose urged her partner at the Shell Garage.
“That woman seems heavily pregnant.”
The woman in a grey tracksuit was sitting on top of a cement sewage cover.
“Her maternal instincts kicked in immediately,” Sgt Nkomo said.
Const Piyosi wanted to find out what was happening since she could see this was not normal.
They arrived on the scene and a conversation between the mother and the constable began.
“Hi, how are you? I can feel the baby, I’m due. Don’t panic.”
Sgt Nkomo had in the meantime contacted emergency personnel and Const Piyose had alerted a neighbour, who arrived with towels.
The baby, who yet has to be named, was born six minutes later.
The infant was wrapped in towels without further ado.
“I didn’t even look at the gender to find out if she gave birth to a boy or a girl,” the constable said.
After EMS-personnel arrived at 5:25, they did the necessary of cutting the umbilical cord and cleaning the woman, before transporting mother and child to Standerton Hospital.
Nelisiwe, a mother of a boy and a girl, said she has not been trained as a midwife, but when the mother said ‘I’m due’, she knew that something needed to be done.
Teboho was left alone at one stage when Neliswe went to fetch the towels and shouted:
“Don’t go!
“I was afraid the baby could be born in the cold, on the cement.”
He prayed fervently after at busy shift when people were celebrating spring.
It could be established that the mother was on her way to her brother’s house to seek help that morning.
